IPL is undoubtedly one of the most viewing tournament in Cricket right now. Star Sports generates a huge amount of revenue in IPL.
But the official broadcaster of IPL wants to expand that this season. Start Sports is targeting new viewers for IPL 2021. For that, they are targeting female viewers, mainly.
Sanjog Gupta, Head – Sports, Star India, has revealed this in an interview with E4M. He said, “We, at Star Sports, have been focussed on growing IPL by attracting new viewers and widening its audience base. Programming initiatives such as Super Funday shows like Unplugged and Countdown along with special segments on Cricket Live (pre & post shows) have supported this objective. We also believe that viewers like seeing reflections of themselves on the broadcast and providing opportunities to female commentators and presenters have served to make our presentation more inclusive. These initiatives, combined with our regionalization strategy that enables wider access to the game, have resulted in the growth of women viewership for IPL 2020.”
According to the BARC Data for the IPL Viewership, women’s viewership of IPL 2020 grew 23% over IPL 2019, which was just 10% in IPL 2019.
However, it also increased the number of female-centric brands on IPL ON-AIR advertising. According to the data, an advertisement for women-centric categories increased by 57% in IPL13 compared to IPL 12.
“Brands consider IPL a great platform to speak to a diverse set of audiences, including women, as no other property can. Our research also suggests that women are much more engaged while watching live sport than they are while watching other forms of media”- Gupta added.
