Despite the addition of two new teams, Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, the top three teams at the Indian Premier League (IPL) continue to be Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, and Royal Challengers Bangalore, as per the IPLomania Report 2023 released by Hansa Research. Moreover, 40% of the audience’s choices of favourite team are driven by their favourite player, thereby indicating the influence of star players in shaping loyalties of IPL followers. Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma remain the top three fan favourites during this season of the IPL. It is little wonder then that according to most industry reports, these three players take the lion’s share of endorsements among Indian sportspersons.
Among the brands on the pitch, title sponsor Tata leads in sponsor awareness while Dream 11 has the highest advertiser recall. Tata’s leadership among the sponsors continues for the second season in a row, considering it saw the highest sponsorship recall last year too at 78%. The report’s insights also reveal the role of in-stadia properties in enhancing the viewer experience. Player jerseys captured maximum eyeballs, with a 64% recall among IPL fans, demonstrating the branding potential of in-stadia properties.
As far as platforms of consumption for the IPL are concerned, dual viewership remains the most popular choice, with 57% viewership taking place on both TV and OTT. TV-only viewership is at 33% while OTT-only is at 10%. Among the IPL programme features, the report notes that the ‘super sixes’ feature had the highest recall rate at 61%.
The report from Hansa Research is based on the first three weeks of the tournament, and provides an in-depth analysis of the key drivers of viewership, helping stakeholders to better understand their audiences.