1:39 AM
Jhon Lock
Mumbai, Apr 12: This is not music to Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) bosses and Indian Premier League management. The Television ratings are at an all-time low after the first week of the fifth edition of IPL.
Call it overdose of cricket or lack of interest in the Twenty20 league, viewers are turning away from this edition of IPL. Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians played in the opener of IPL 5 on April 4 in Chennai.
According to Tam Sports ratings, the viewership has dropped 19% in the first week of IPL 5, a report on "DNA" newspaper said.
The report said that the average rating for this year's start of IPL is 3.76. This is a big slump from IPL 4 which was at 4.63. This is the average Television Viewer Ratings (TVR).
Last year too it was not a good sign for IPL ratings. However, 2011 could be attributed to World Cup in February, March and April months. IPL started immediately after India won the World Cup on April 2.
However, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla and his team will have to find answers as to what is going wrong in the current edition.
“The IPL viewership figures have been going downward for some time. The development is not surprising,” Ajit Verghese, managing director, Maxus, told DNA.
“It is too early to come to a conclusion, but there could be various reasons. Nowadays, people are watching matches in different places and using different platforms such as hotels, theatres and mobile phones. If there are some good matches in the future, the ratings might improve. But overall, the viewership for Indian cricket has been going down.”
Till now, 90.1 million people have watched the matches of IPL 5. Last year in the same period it was 101.77 million.
India have not been doing well on the cricket field. This could also be the reason. They lost the four-match Test series to Australia 4-0 and failed to qualify for the tri-series in the same tour. Also, they did not make it to Asia Cup final in Bangladesh.
Till Wednesday night, IPL 5 had completed 12 matches. There are 64 games to be played and the final is scheduled for May 27.
Call it overdose of cricket or lack of interest in the Twenty20 league, viewers are turning away from this edition of IPL. Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians played in the opener of IPL 5 on April 4 in Chennai.
According to Tam Sports ratings, the viewership has dropped 19% in the first week of IPL 5, a report on "DNA" newspaper said.
The report said that the average rating for this year's start of IPL is 3.76. This is a big slump from IPL 4 which was at 4.63. This is the average Television Viewer Ratings (TVR).
Last year too it was not a good sign for IPL ratings. However, 2011 could be attributed to World Cup in February, March and April months. IPL started immediately after India won the World Cup on April 2.
However, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla and his team will have to find answers as to what is going wrong in the current edition.
“The IPL viewership figures have been going downward for some time. The development is not surprising,” Ajit Verghese, managing director, Maxus, told DNA.
“It is too early to come to a conclusion, but there could be various reasons. Nowadays, people are watching matches in different places and using different platforms such as hotels, theatres and mobile phones. If there are some good matches in the future, the ratings might improve. But overall, the viewership for Indian cricket has been going down.”
Till now, 90.1 million people have watched the matches of IPL 5. Last year in the same period it was 101.77 million.
India have not been doing well on the cricket field. This could also be the reason. They lost the four-match Test series to Australia 4-0 and failed to qualify for the tri-series in the same tour. Also, they did not make it to Asia Cup final in Bangladesh.
Till Wednesday night, IPL 5 had completed 12 matches. There are 64 games to be played and the final is scheduled for May 27.
