IPL 2022 TV Ratings dropped by a huge 33% in the opening week: In a massive setback for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the television ratings of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 have taken a dip by 33 per cent as compared to the last IPL season in the UAE. As per the experts, this dip in the viewership might affect the BCCI as the auction for the IPL media rights are just around the corner.
Notably, the television ratings of the first eight matches of the Tata IPL 2022 are recorded at 2.52 while it was 3.75 in the last season. The data of BARC also shows that the total reach of the gala Indian T20 tournament has also taken a hit by 14 per cent to 229.06 million.
It’s important to note that usually, the TV ratings of the cash-rich IPL take giant spikes in the opening week. However, this year it has been exactly the opposite of what everyone had thought.
Also, the stats show that only two matches in the first week of the IPL 2022 have reached over 100 million users each, as compared to four in the IPL 2021. Those two matches were Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders opening fixture and the Sunday game between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The BCCI’s move to extend the Indian Premier League to ten teams affair hasn’t gone well with the viewers. The aim to include two more teams was to increase the competitiveness amongst the franchises, hence increasing the viewership.
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Moreover, the sources in the know of the development have questioned BCCI’s aggressive pricing of the IPL media rights for the next cycle. The base price to grab the IPL media rights for the next five years is approximately INR 33,000 crores.
“If you look at the TV viewership of IPL over the last three years, it is clearly visible that there is not enough room to grow the viewership substantially. It has already gone deeper into Hindi and most of the regional markets, and the only way to increase is probably putting it on the free-to-air (FTA) platform, which will ultimately kill the value,” he said. “If the BCCI is expecting to at least double the media rights value from Rs 16,347 crore to Rs 33,000 crore at the base price, who are they expecting to shell out more money—the advertisers or the viewers for the subscription?”
The Invitation to Tender (ITT) document for the media rights is set for sale by the BCCI at INR 25 lakhs.
Reports claimed that the likes of Disney Star, TV18-Viacom (Sports-18), Amazon, Zee & Sony have already picked up the ITT document and are going crazy to get the media rights of IPL.
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