Cricket draws 93% of sports viewers in India reports BARC

Agencies
June 4, 2019

London, Jun 4: Cricket is the jewel in the crown of rising sports viewership in the country, with 93 per cent of all sports viewers in 2018 tuning to cricket content, and women form a chunk of the audience, according to a BARC India report.

As many as 766 million viewers sampled sports content in 2018. It grew from 43 billion impressions in 2016 to 51 billion impressions, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9 per cent, according to the report that comes amidst the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup.

The impressions is defined as the number of individuals in thousands of a target audience who viewed an 'event', averaged across minutes.

Highlighting key insights, Romil Ramgarhia, Chief Operating Officer, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, told IANS: "Although other sports are making their presence felt on television, cricket continues to be the most watched sport in India. The broad fan base of cricket is evident from the fact that women constitute 48 per cent of viewers.

"Also, growth in cricket viewership is increasingly coming from regional language broadcasts. It's visible from non-English consumption rising from 77 per cent in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 to 81 per cent in IPL 2019, and now it's being telecast in 7 languages. The wide range of formats and tournaments, increasing viewer interest in women's cricket, international T20 leagues and domestic competitions are driving cricket viewership to new highs," Ramgarhia said.

While other sports like kabaddi, wrestling and football are gaining popularity among Indians, cricket draws in the maximum viewers.

With 342 million women formed 48 per cent of cricket viewers in 2018. Youth (15-30 years) continues to dominate cricket consumership with 35 per cent of live cricket viewership coming from this segment in 2019.

In the live cricket segment, the T20 World Cup in 2016 and the Champions Trophy in 2017 contributed 21 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively, to the total cricket viewership.

The absence of any major International Cricket Council (ICC) event resulted in 28 per cent drop in the international cricket viewing for 2018, while IPL in 2018 grew 19 per cent over the previous year.

IPL is a mainstay in the regular Indian home and dominates sports viewership in the weeks it's on air. The homegrown league, in its 11th edition, dominated the annual cricket viewership with 40 per cent share. Interestingly, 50 per cent IPL viewers are below 30 years of age.

As far as the impact on the advertising industry is concerned, e-commerce has emerged as the dominant sector with share of ads going up from 14 per cent in 2016 to 42 per cent in 2018, whereas smartphones and telecom ads have decreased from 24 per cent in 2016 to 11 per cent in 2018, the report said.

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Agencies
March 8,2020

Mumbai, Mar 8: Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to India's ODI squad as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the team for the upcoming South Africa series.

South Africa are scheduled to tour India for a three-match ODI series, starting from March 12.

India's ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C ), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) have already announced their squad for the series and spinner George Linde was given maiden ODI call-up.

South Africa squad: Quinton de Kock (c, wk), Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Kyle Verreynne, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Jon-Jon Smuts, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks, Anrich Nortje, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Janneman Malan.

The first ODI will be played in Dharamsala while the other two matches will be played in Lucknow and Kolkata on March 15 and 18, respectively.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Mar 4: The BCCI has decided to implement strict cost cutting measures with the notable decision being IPL 2020 champions' prize money will be halved as compared to 2019. In a circular sent to all IPL franchises, the BCCI has notified that instead of a whopping Rs 20 crore, the IPL champion team will now receive Rs 10 crore only. "The financial rewards have been reworked as a part of the cost cutting measures. The champions will get Rs 10 crore instead of Rs 20 crore. The runners-up will get Rs 6.25 crore from earlier Rs 12.5 crore," a BCCI notification, in possession of news agency, read.

The two losing qualifiers will now get Rs 4.375 crore each.

"The franchises are all in good health. They also have multiple ways like sponsorships to bolster their income. Hence the decision on prize money taken," a senior BCCI source said.

However, a state association hosting IPL games will get Rs 1 crore each with franchises and BCCI contributing Rs 50 lakh each.

It has also been learnt that mid-level BCCI employees won't be allowed to avail business class flights like earlier times for flying to the Asian countries (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, UAE) where the flying time is less than eight hours.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Melbourne, Jul 21: Cricket Australia's chief executive Nick Hockley has said that the Indian players and staff will most likely be asked to face two weeks of quarantine before the four-match Test series.

This scenario will bring the Adelaide Oval and its newly constructed hotel firmly into view as the sort of biosecure bubble, ESPNCricinfo reported.

India and Australia are slated to face each other in a four-match Test series, which is to begin from December 4 at Brisbane.

"The two-week quarantine is pretty well-defined. What we are working on is making sure that even within that quarantine environment, the players have got the absolute best training facilities, so that their preparation for the matches is as optimal as it can possibly be," ESPNCricinfo quoted Hockey as saying.

"Certainly the fact that the Adelaide Oval has a hotel. It does provide a facility not dissimilar to Old Trafford or Ageas Bowl where the hotels are integrated into the venue," he added.

Hockley also said that an exacting standard of biosecurity and testing would be applied before the series against India as the coronavirus cases are spiking in the subcontinent.

"It's widely known and it's unlikely that international travel restrictions would have lifted by the time that India will be due to come into the country. Clearly there will be testing regimes. We will be able to test people before that they get on to the plane and it is the nature of the situation of making sure we have the quarantine arrangements in line with government and health authority protocols," Hockley said.

"The key thing for the players is that there's regular testing and that we appropriately quarantine them when they come in and all of those plans are currently in development," he added.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced the postponement of the T20 World Cup 2020 slated to be held in Australia from October 18-November 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the announcement, the BCCI is likely to go ahead with the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the October-November window. However, it is known where the T20 tournament will be played as cases continue to rise in India.
"I think the BCCI has made no secrets that they are considering what that means for the IPL. For us, it's about getting a bit of an understanding and certainty around what that means. Clearly, in a normal course, some of our best players are obviously top picks for those IPL teams," Hockley said.

"It's a bit premature to speculate on that. We need to understand what the plans are if any and once we understand that we will make decisions accordingly," he added.

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