IPL 17's opening day registers record-breaking viewership: Broadcaster

MUMBAI: The 17th edition of the Indian Premier League opened to blockbuster viewership numbers with 16.8 crore viewers tuning in to watch the season's first game between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru on March 22, the tournament's official broadcaster said on Thursday.

Disney Star said the opening day also registered a watch-time of 1276 crore minutes -- the highest-ever for the first day of any season. The watch-time minutes are a compilation of the time spent by each viewer in watching the game.

The 17th season of IPL also witnessed the highest-ever peak TV concurrency for an opening day, with 6.1 crore viewers watching the broadcast simultaneously on the Disney Star network.

"Disney Star had recorded 870 crore minutes on the IPL's opening day in 2023. In comparison to the previous edition, there is a growth of 16 per cent in TV consumption," the company stated.

Defending champions Chennai Super Kings defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by six wickets in the season-opener in Chennai.

"This growth is a reaffirmation of the incomparable capacity of Live Cricket to aggregate audiences on TV and provides a blockbuster start to the tournament. We will continue to enrich the magic of one of the world's biggest sporting events to take forward the launch momentum and deliver unprecedented viewership," a Star Sports spokesperson said in a press release.

The channel said that the record-breaking TV viewership on the opening day comes on the back of an array of programmes in the lead-up to the 17th season which attracted more than 24.5 crore viewers till a week prior to the start of the tournament.

In the digital space, JioCinema clocked 11.3 crore viewers on the first day of the IPL.

The streamer claimed that it registered a 51 per cent jump over day one of IPL 2023. The total watch time on JioCinema on day 1 was 660 crore minutes.