Broadcaster Disney-Star on Thursday said that over 300 million television viewers tuned in to watch the first 10 matches of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on its network, adding that this was 23% higher than last year. The IPL began on March 31.

Quoting data from the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC), Disney-Star, which is the official TV broadcaster of the IPL for the 2023-27 media cycle, said the first 10 matches had clocked 62.3 billion minutes of watch time on the network. While the television rating (TVR) among affluent male urban sports audiences had grown by over 20% during the period.

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Sanjog Gupta, head, sports, Disney-Star, said, “We are elated with the overwhelming response to Disney-Star’s broadcast of the IPL this year. From a great opening, viewing figures continue to break records for the first 10 matches of the IPL.”

Reliance-backed Viacom18, which has the digital rights of the IPL for the 2023-27 cycle, and is streaming the current edition for free on JioCinema, also had viewership data to share on Thursday, saying it had over 5.5 billion video views so far of the T20 tournament.

In particular, Viacom18 said, the Chennai Super Kings versus Rajasthan Royals match on April 12 clocked a concurrent viewership of 22 million on JioCinema, which was the highest-ever on digital. For the opening match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings on March 31, JioCinema had achieved a peak concurrency of over 16 million, it had said earlier.

For the opening weekend, JioCinema had clocked over 1.47 billion video views, with new app downloads at 50 million. At that time, Anil Jayaraj, chief executive officer of Viacom18 Sports, had said the numbers were evidence of a digital revolution.

“Digital is targetable, addressable and interactive. The landscape for content consumption has moved to digital and JioCinema’s performance is the biggest evidence of it,” Jayaraj said.

But Gupta of Disney-Star said the peak concurrency on TV for the opening match was 56 million, with an engagement of 76 minutes. For the opening match, Disney-Star saw a growth of 31% in TV ratings along with a growth of 20% in reach compared to last year.

“Television continues to be the preferred medium for uninterrupted viewing of live cricket. All other media including digital are a complement to TV,” Gupta said.

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On Monday, JioCinema, had said it had onboarded a record 23 sponsors for IPL in the first week. Star Sports, which is part of the Disney-Star network, said it had 13 sponsors for the T20 tournament this year on TV.

Advertisers on JioCinema include Dream11, PhonePe, Appy Fizz, Castrol, TVS, Oreo, Amazon, UltraTech Cement, Puma and Kamla Pasand, among others. While Disney-Star has brands such as Asian Paints, Mountain Dew, Britannia and Parle Biscuits advertising on its network.