Sunday's final of the Indian Premier League yielded average ratings of 8.3 per cent, compared with 8.7 per cent in last year's final.
Though the final match of this year's Indian Premier League (IPL-2) got the highest average ratings in terms of numbers of people who tuned in, they watched it for far less time than those who saw the final played last year in the inaugural edition (IPL-1) of the cricket tournament.
The final of IPL-2, between Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers (winners) and Royal Challengers Bangalore, fetched ratings of 8.3 per cent, compared to 8.7 per cent in last year's final between Rajasthan Royals (winners) and Chennai Super Kings.
The agency collected and analysed this data from cable television homes and among the 15-years-and-above age group, considered the target demographic for cricket matches by media agencies. Overall, there are around 85 million cable homes in the country and 12 million direct-to-home subscribers.
The final match had more viewers tuning in this year to SET MAX, the host channel, said the data compiled by aMap, the television ratings agency that tracked both IPL tournaments. Around 11.3 million viewers watched the Deccan Chargers, placed bottom in IPL-1 team rankings, win. This was about 2.7 million more than the TV viewers who watched the IPL-1 final on SET MAX in 2008, said aMap.
However, reported aMap, the average time spent by viewers on the Deccan-Royal final played on Sunday night stood at 57 minutes. This is less than that of the final of IPL-1 by 17 minutes -- something considered significant by media planners.
"A drop in average time spent on IPL-2 indicates a natural drop in the interest-level for viewers. However, we are encouraged by an overall increase of cumulative viewership of IPL-2 over IPL-1," said a senior planner in a leading media agency.
The IPL is now considered an important television property by advertisers and media agencies alike. It is estimated that over Rs 400 crore worth of advertising money was spent on SET MAX alone by 80-plus advertisers during the 36 days of telecast of IPL-2. The second edition had 59 Twenty20 format cricket matches, played between April 18 and May 24 in South Africa.
This is significant, since there was an overall drop in ad and marketing spending since the beginning of this year across sectors, due to the global economic slowdown. In all, around 40 hours of on-air time was consumed by various advertisers and sponsors of IPL-2. Leading on-air advertisers included Vodafone, Airtel Digital, Hyundai Motors, Coca-Cola, Hindustan Unilever and Samsung, among others, said the report by aMap.
The data also shows the cumulative reach of IPL-2 at 419 million, up from 349 million of IPL-1. This means around 70 million additional viewers watched IPL-2 on TV this year. Industry sources say this is an incentive for the 80-plus advertisers who used the IPL platform.
