With five days of closely contested matches between two of the strongest cricket teams who are likely contenders for the World Cup next month, the recently concluded India South Africa ODI saw viewership peak at 3.67 on prime time with a rating of 1.8 with 20 million viewers watching the grand finale on DD1 on Sunday, according to overnight rating agency aMap.
Analysts at aMap dub it as a ‘thriller series' as it was it was the last few overs, which determined the fate of each match.
While India may have lost the overall series by winning two out of the five matches, it was a close win for South Africa in most of the games. Ratings jumped from 1.5 on the first day of the ODI to 1.8 on the fifth day while viewership escalated from 16 million to 20 million on DD1.
The Essel Group-promoted cricket channel, Ten Cricket which also aired the series, recorded ratings which hovered between 0.7 and 1.2, with viewership consecutively peaking at 11 million on the last three days of the ODI.
Analysts at aMap point out that it was also the stellar performance of batsmen like Virat Kohli and Yusuf Pathan, where both made centuries and the grit displayed by South African players like Hashim Amla and Duminy also added to the increase in viewer ship.
“There were players from the both the teams who were likely to play in the World Cup and their performances were being closely watched,” claim an analyst.
Meanwhile, Ten Cricket is expected to rake in ad revenues in excess of Rs 100 crore. Speaking to Business Line , Mr Atul Pande , Chief Executive Officer - Sports Business, Essel Group (the owners of Ten Cricket), Ten Sports, said, “We are still in the prices of drawing up the exact numbers but the revenues are expected to the tune of Rs 130 crore with sponsors such as MTN, Tata Docomo, Maruti Suzuki and Vodafone who have invested in the series.”