IPL 2018 witnesses highest ever opening week viewership, claims broadcaster

The inaugural week of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 season witnessed 371 million viewers tuning in on televisions and streaming the matches online on Hotstar, claimed broadcaster Star India in a statement released on Thursday. This is the highest ever inaugural week viewership recorded for IPL since its launch, according to the press release.

“Television reach for the opening week stood at 288.4 million viewers driven by 30% increase in reach in South,” Star India stated.

“Hotstar registered a viewership of 82.4 million viewers on the platform with a phenomenal growth of 76% versus last year,” it added.

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The broadcaster, which acquired the rights for the tournament for five years starting this edition, had not provided the first-week television viewership numbers for the league last year.

The tournament is being broadcast on 10 television channels and live streamed on Hotstar with feeds in six languages - Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali.

“Even though it is early days, this has already become the most watched IPL ever on a tournament to date basis, and we hope to continue to engage fans powered by localization and technology across TV and Hotstar,” Star India managing director Sanjay Gupta was quoted as saying in the press release.

(With inputs from PTI)