IPL 2018 Breaks Online Viewership Record; Hotstar-Akamai Sets New Benchmarks!
IPL 2018 is the 11th IPL season under Twenty20 Cricket League of BCCI.
On Tuesday, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were playing Chennai Super Kings (CSK), and it was a cliffhanger, no doubt. KKR scored an impressive 202 runes, and CSK successfully chased that target.
CSK, which entered the IPL league after a gap of 3 years, made their fans super excited and happy.
However, as the match ended, another major record was broken for online viewership, across the world. This match has now become the most watched sports event on Hotstar and Akamai.
Hotstar-Akamai Breaks Online Viewership Record
Star’s digital platform Hotstar is the official app to watch IPL matches online or mobile. And Akamai is world’s largest cloud delivery platform. Hotstar and Akamai have collaborated for IPL for ensuring that cricket fans are able to watch matches online, without any hiccups.
At its peak, 5.5 million or 55 lakh viewers were watching this particular match, at the same time. This has set a new online viewership record for any sporting event.
Before this IPL match between KKR and CSK, the record for highest viewership on Hotstar was held by India and Pakistan ICC Champions Trophy Final in June 2017. 4.5 million cricket fans watched this match at the same time, during its peak.
Inauguration of the U.S. President Donald Trump was another major event which held records for Hotstar with 4.6 million views.
Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar said,
“Crossing 5 million on a live sporting event is like breaking the 10-second barrier in the 100-meter dash. We are proud that we are the first to get here.
Hotstar is streaming the matches live on its app and website in 6 languages: Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Kannada, Hindi and English.
5 Interesting Facts About IPL 2018
Vivo IPL 2018 is the 11th IPL season under Twenty20 Cricket League of BCCI. The tournament started on April 7th  and will end on May 27th.
- Star India won the media rights for IPL 2018 for a princely sum of Rs16,347.5 crore, for 5 seasons. This is indeed a big amount because if we sum up the total bid amount of all other bidders, the amount comes to Rs15,819.51 crore! This makes IPL as big as UK’s Premier League and the National Basketball Association in the US. Hotstar is Star’s Digital platform.
- Star, which is a Twentieth Century Fox company, has already won the exclusive media rights for all matches conducted by ICC and BCCI for next 5 years. This means Star has a literally 100% media rights for all cricket matches played in India and abroad, for the next 5 years.
- Facebook’s bid of Rs 3900 crore for Internet and mobile rights was the highest bid so far under this category.
- Between 2008 and 2017, Sony has exclusive rights for media; and Hotstar had rights for mobile and digital. Last year, Sony earned Rs 1200 crore from advertising revenue, and Hotstar earned Rs 120 crore.
- The richest player who is playing in IPL this year is 20-year old Aryaman Birla. He is the son of Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Birla Group with assets of Rs 90,000 crore. He was bought for Rs 30 lakh by Rajasthan Royals.
Which team are you supporting this IPL? Do let us know by commenting right here!
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