IPL viewership drops on TV, but continues to grow online!

The first 15 days of the DLF IPL tournament have seen more than 20 million views online, between netizens on Indiatimes.com and Youtube.com, well ahead of last year's 11 million views for the first 2 weeks. 82% growth alone is a great achievement, but it is even more impressive given the stagnating ratings of IPL on television. The trend suggests that online viewers are enjoying the unique engagements and convenience that the online platform offers. Viewership has been consistent between day and night matches, indicating that people are watching the matches at home as well as at the office.

The significant shift is also being attributed to the quality of the experience online, thanks to the technical partnership with YouTube. The experience adapts to users with high speed or low speed connections, allowing everyone to get a smooth streaming experience, regardless of connection quality. In addition, the distribution between Indiatimes.com and Youtube.com has made sure that consumers can find the action anywhere on the web.

In addition, the social interactions from the Facebook chat platform have created a new community on the site, where fans are sharing opinions, views, and engaging with what's happening on screen. In last week, 100k comments were posted during matches, indicating how engaged users were during the matches.

While viewership has already surpassed internal expectations, the bar is only higher for the rest of the season, as competition gets more intense.