TAM Media Research (joint venture between AC Nielsen and Kantar Media Research/IMRB) has released their latest TV viewership data for IPL 8, and the stats are encouraging for advertisers.
As per the research conducted till 45 matches of this session, women viewership has increased to an all time high of 36%. Overall, IPL 8 has attracted 18.2 crore viewers till now, which is again one of the highest viewership stats Indian television has ever seen.
Considering that in most of the Indian households, it’s the women who control the purchasing decisions, IPL organizers had created a women-centric programming and packaging approach, and it seems that it’s working. Compared to last year, women viewers have increased 1%, which is quite a feat considering that World Cup had just ended, and there were fears that IPL can be over-whelming after a packed session of World Cup.
Among advertisers, Vodafone has emerged as the top player in spending and visibility, closely followed by Amazon.
Interesting Highlights
– For both the genders, 26% of the audience are aged between 15 and 24; 38% are above 35 and 18% share was commanded by both 24-35 and 4-14 age groups
– Madhya Pradesh has replaced Karnataka to get included in the top 5 states which watched IPL 8. These are: Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal & Madhya Pradesh
– Advertising spend has increased 6% compared to last session. Vodafone garnered 8% of overall spending and was at #1 among all advertisers; meanwhile Amazon with 7% was at #2 position. It’s the ecommerce firms which dominate top 5 ranking as Paytm is at #3 and Snapdeal at #4. Vimal Pan Masala featuring Ajay Devgan is at #5 (both spending and visibility)
– Other ecommerce portals which are in the top 10 ranking include: Cardekho.com, Freecharge.in and Cartrade.com
– On screen advertisement has been dominated by ACC Cement, which are closely followed by brands such as Yes Bank and Intex Aqua Speed
– On ground presence of brands saw a completely different story: Pepsi, which is the title sponsor grabbed the first position, followed by ‘brand’ Pepsi IPL. Hotstar, the new mobile app from Star was at #3, followed by Yes Bank and Vodafone.
– Compared to 2014 when 17.9 crore viewers watched IPL, total of 18.2 crore viewers have watched IPL 8 via different mediums (including TV and web). This is an increase of 2%.
– Average viewing time also increased in this session of IPL. An average viewer watched 45.04 minutes of a single match this year, whereas last year it was 41.22 minutes
– The opening match between defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians was rated 5.4. Last year, the opening match was rated 4.4.
IPL 7, which happened last year, has been estimated to be worth $7.2 billion (Rs 43,200 crore) in terms of worth of various teams, branding and marketing analysis of various brands. As we had reported earlier, advertisers are going to spend Rs 2000 to Rs 2500 crore during this cricketing season, which included World Cup and IPL 8.
The final of IPL 8 is scheduled on May 24th, and by the time the winner is declared, it’s advertisement and branding reach would have reached a new record for Indian television.
You can find overall ratings of all the matches, along with some other interesting information here.