MUMBAI: The ICC World Cup 2015, till the semifinals stage, garnered 635 million viewers, which makes it the highest viewed event in Indian television.
The unprecedented 635 million reach signifies that every second Indian tuned in to watch the biggest extravaganza of 50 overs cricket.
A record 309 million Indians (TAM Panel CS4+ extrapolated to the universe using a standard conversion factor) tuned in to watch India’s semi-final clash with Australia on their televisions, as the two best teams in the world battled for a berth in the World Cup finals. The pivotal game was the most-watched cricket match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and bettered the blockbuster India versus Pakistan group stage clash in terms of reach. The match rated 15.0 TVR across the Star network including DD and 12.7 TVR on Star Network and 2.3 TVR on DD. (TAM data M15+ ABC)
This World Cup was truly a ‘Cup for All’ as the tournament was showcased in six different languages - Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada, apart from English and Hindi. The regional feed strategy proved successful with Hindi and regional feeds contributing to 77 per cent of the overall viewership.
Star India CEO Uday Shankar said, “The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has been an epic event in terms of scale, reach and following. With over 600 million viewers, largest aggregation of advertisers ever, and one of the most talked about marketing campaigns, this edition has validated that there is nothing bigger than the World Cup for Indian consumers. Fittingly for an event of such scale, Star India took the game of cricket to the next level redefining the viewer experience. The fans’ unflinching faith and passion for the game has abetted our efforts to make this World Cup bigger and better than ever before.”
Led by Star India’s disruptive campaign on India’s World Cup journey, the passion and fan following for cricket as a sport scaled new heights. The ‘Mauka’ campaign, which met with tremendous response online and on social media, was inundated with spoofs and iterations making ‘Mauka’ the buzzword during the World Cup. The campaign went viral with over 33 million views online making it amongst the most viewed campaigns ever on digital in India.
On the back of regional feeds, this edition saw advertising options for brands looking to associate with the World Cup. With many first time World Cup sponsors advertising on this edition, the advertiser count for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has been the highest ever, 50 per cent more than the last edition held in India (2011).
India was talking cricket online too with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 scoring strongly on social media dominating conversations through the tourney; a record 750,000 authors driving 3.6 million conversations with a reach of over 44 billion potential impressions.
