700 million to watch IPL this year: Report

If some estimates are to be believed, this year’s IPL is going to be a blockbuster in terms of the number of viewers it will reach.

A Business Standard report quotes industry observers as saying this:  The viewership could reach 700 million viewers. As many as 530 million will be watching it on TV and the rest of the viewership will come from online (Disney + Hotstar).

For perspective, in 2019, about 613 million had watched.

Despite this, the revenue is expected to be lower than what it should be for a 700-million viewership for Star India.  Because of the change in the schedule and a few other factors (related to competition from KBC, Bigg Boss, etc), the revenue realized might not be optimum, the report says.

If the IPL season was called off this year, the BCCI would have made losses to the tune of Rs 2,000 Cr.