More than 72 million page views generated during the IPL tournament!

The fast-paced, action-packed 20-20 cricket was streamed live by Times Internet Limited (TIL), the official digital partner of IPL in partnership with YouTube, which resulted in a 31% jump in online viewership. More than 72 million page views were generated for the fourth edition of the tournament as against 55 million last year.

The page views for India were 43 million over last year number of 24 million, a growth of 79% over last season. This is a new record for online sports viewership in the country. It also indicates the growth and acceptance of online streaming for live sporting events in India as against established mediums like television. One clear reason indicated by users to opt for online over TV was ability to multitask on the computer.

The numbers reflect a new benchmark in global and Indian sports history, a fact reflected in the final match of the tournament that generated over 5 million page views ' the highest single day viewership for the tournament.

The live streaming of this global sports event, coupled with match highlights, had hit it off with India's teeming cricket fans both resident and expatriate. The Indiatimes and YouTube platform gave marketers the ability to reach out to large audiences with engaging ad formats (clickable video ads, dynamic banners, flash innovations, page skinning), thereby ensuring maximum possible interaction with their brands.

"We are very happy with our association as presenting sponsors of IPL on Indiatimes.com. After the World Cup we realized that there would be a fatigue element in TV viewership. And we also realized that the digital medium would catch the right target group for IPL." Shashank Srivastava, Chief General Manager Marketing, Maruti Suzuki."

Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet Limited, added, "Our approach to IPL was focused on providing a high quality viewing experience and maximizing audience reach through TIL's network strength and distribution partnerships. All through Season 4, our efforts around product innovation and quality continuously paid off via increased audience loyalty, strong value to the advertiser and brand association with IPL. We are proud to have set new benchmarks in the online sports viewing space and will endeavor to do so, in the seasons to come."

Further, Google India's head of vertical sales, Kiran Mani expressed about their association with Indiatimes.com for IPL4, "Our focus has been to provide our users with all form of popular and premium content. We're extremely delighted with the response we've got from all the cricket fans on YouTube for the Indian premier league season 4. We look forward to build on this partnership with Indiatimes and set new standards for IPL season 5."

M Sivasankar, Tourism Director, Kerala Tourism stated, "We were the Gold sponsor of the live webcast on youtube/indiatimes.com and indiatimes.com. A click on the banner took the viewers the "Dream Season' page on the Kerala Tourism's website. More than 60% of our traffic during the IPL came from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Pune and Chennai via the Indiatimes.com and YouTube."