IPL TV viewership draws 451 million unique audience as of week 5, 21% higher than last full season

Television viewership of the ongoing cricket tournament Indian Premier League reached 451 million unique audience as of week five cumulatively, which is 21% higher than the whole of previous season, BARC data showed Thursday.
Total viewership as of 48 matches after week five in the ongoing edition is also 33% higher than previous season in the same period. Disney Star is the official television broadcaster of IPL 2023.

A total of 266 billion minutes have been consumed in the first 48 matches of the sixteenth edition of the cricketing tournament, which is the second highest ever, excluding Covid years, data showed.

The BCCI has given the TV and digital broadcasting rights of this Tata IPL season 2023 to different companies. While Disney Star picked the TV rights, Mukesh Ambani's flagship OTT platform JioCinema got the streaming rights.

BARC data also showed there has been a 29% growth in TV ratings for the first 48 matches, while the reach for HD channels has hit 86 million, which is 3.4 times higher compared with last year.

Disney Star's IPL broadcast also recorded highest ever reach in Hindi Speaking Markets. While the reach was the highest ever in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Bangalore, the tv broadcast reach clocked the second best ever in Delhi, Mumbai and Karnataka.