New Delhi : The ICC World Cup is coming to a close and the last match between the two finalists England and New Zealand will be played on July 14.
While the Indian team put its best foot forward, the men in blue could not reach the finals. And experts say that this will impact viewership, and even advertising revenue.
It was expected that Star, the official broadcaster of the World Cup, would earn around Rs 10 to Rs 15 crore more from last minute inventories.
However, India losing to New Zealand has dampened the sentiments of cricket enthusiasts as well as advertisers who would not be keen on buying the remaining 5-10 percent ad inventories which Star could have sold for as high as Rs 25 – Rs 35 lakh if India would have qualified for the finals. And there is no denying this as the viewership for India matches have been at peak throughout the cricketing event.
Take the example of the India-Pakistan match, which was played on June 16. It saw as many as 229 million viewers tuning in.
Television viewership data showed that 60 percent of all World Cup viewers tuned into watch the India-Pakistan match, while 45 percent of viewership of all India World Cup matches is from the India-Pakistan match.
The match alone garnered 3,30,58,000 impressions on Star Sports 1 Hindi, which became the top channel for that week.
What are impressions?
The number of individuals in thousands of a target audience who viewed an event, averaged across minutes are referred to as impressions.
A comparison of the India-Pakistan match in other cricket tournaments shows that the World Cup 2019 match drew maximum viewership.
The India-Pakistan match played during the Asia Cup 2018 recorded 127 million viewership, and the ICC Champions Trophy Final in 2017 saw 268 million viewers.
During week 25, which was between June 15 to June 21, Star Sports 1 Hindi’s gross impressions were up by over 50 percent, especially due to the popularity of the India-Pakistan match.
Currently, Star Sports 1 Hindi is the leading sports channel thanks to India’s two matches with England and Bangladesh.
However, things may not be as bright as it would have been had India reached the finals.
Speaking to Moneycontrol, an industry expert revealed that “the viewership will come down a certain extent and Star will not achieve what revenue it was eyeing from the remaining 10 percent inventory.”
On the digital front, India’s semi-final match with New Zealand made a new record as the match saw record concurrent viewers on Hotstar.
With 19 million concurrent viewers, the India-New Zealand match surpassed the previous record of 18.6 million concurrent viewers made during the finale of VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019.
This shows what India means for the ICC World Cup. The India team had last got the ICC World Cup trophy back home in 2011.
