Broadcaster Disney Star recorded its highest-ever watch time for a single game during the opening day (March 22) of the Indian Premier League (IPL), it said on Thursday.
A total of 12,760 million minutes of watch time was registered for the opening day of the season, which included the star-studded opening ceremony and a titanic clash between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
“168 million unique viewers watched the broadcast of the IPL on Day 1,” the official TV broadcaster said. A total of 61 million viewers watched the broadcast of the opening day of the IPL 2024 simultaneously.
According to Disney Star, the unfiltered captain’s version of the importance of the league, in which eight out of the 10 captains revealed their raw emotions, led to this highest-ever peak TV concurrency for an IPL opening day.
“The record-breaking TV viewership on the opening day comes on the back of an incredible lead-up to the 17th season, which attracted more than 245 million unique viewers till a week before the start of the tournament,” Disney Star said.
In comparison, JioCinema, the official digital broadcaster had clocked 113 million viewers on the first day of the IPL. The streaming platform claimed that it registered a 51% jump over day one of IPL 2023. The total watch time on JioCinema on day one was 6,600 million minutes, it said in a statement last week.