MUMBAI: ICC World T20 2016 has locked a 114 percent viewership growth in India, making it one of the most successful years for the tournament, says ICC.
“In India alone, the India versus Pakistan encounter rated 17.3 across the Star Sports network and Doordarshan, the best rated Twenty20 match ever since the final of the World Twenty20 in 2007, reaching 83 million people. And the cumulative in-home viewership for the event in India was 730 million, an increase of 114 per cent over the previous edition,” read a statement released by International Cricket Council.
Commenting on the unprecedented success of the ICC’s digital and broadcast activity at the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016, ICC chief executive officer David Richardson said, “It is a fact that the ICC World Twenty20 2016 engaged with fans, old and new, like never before. The dynamic and fascinating cricket on field was matched by the innovative presentation of the world feed broadcast and the efforts of our broadcast partners, which delivered record viewership numbers. “
The tournament, won by the West Indies men’s and women’s teams, which beat England and Australia in their respective finals at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 3 April, was the first major ICC event produced by ICC TV. That involved coverage of 48 matches across seven venues in India using 30 cameras at each venue.
The tournament also showcased staggering figures when it comes to its digital reach with 320 million video views across ICC digital properties and social media pages alone. “During the event, 46 million people across the world engaged on Facebook, the most ever for any Twenty20 event in history, while the 85 press conferences streamed live on the ICC’s Facebook page had more than 10 million views,” ICC shared. In addition to that there were 5.75 billion impressions of Tweets related to the ICC World Twenty20, an all-time record for any cricket event. The data on the digital activities was equally stunning and it all added up to make the event a hugely successful one.
“Our philosophy that the game is about the fans encouraged us to push digital media and broadcast boundaries at the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016 with some creative and engaging activations and innovations.And this enhancement, supplemented by the skills of the players and a highly competitive format, contributed enormously to the overall success of the tournament as we recorded unprecedented broadcast and digital figures. We are delighted with the results and look forward to continuing to develop both our digital activities and our broadcast coverage ahead of next year’s ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Women’s World Cup, both set to be held in the United Kingdom,” Richardson concluded.
