Female viewers in IPL3 impressive, but marketers slow in targeting them

IPL3 has been delivering as per expectations and the homecoming season is paying off too, but one does wonder about the female viewership that the tournament has garnered. Do they have a sizeable presence in IPL viewership? exchange4media finds out.

According to TAM Sports for the six metros in CS 4+ SEC ABC for the first 14 matches – from March 12-20, 2010 – the contributory share of female audience is 36 per cent. This share is reasonably higher as compared to IPL2, though it may be debatable. The inaugural IPL matches during the same period also saw 36 per cent contributory share of female audience. The contributory share of male audience (4+ years) so far during IPL3 is the same as IPL’s inaugural season, but marginally low as compared to Season 2. The male audience contributes 64 per cent of the share as compared to 66 per cent during IPL2 and 64 per cent of the share during the inaugural IPL season.

Interestingly, most of the audience who constitute 36 per cent share of viewership are 35-plus in age, with an overwhelming contributory share of 40 per cent. A distant second with 25 per cent of the audience who contribute 36 per cent viewership is the 15-24 age group. This may not be good news for marketers, who would primarily want to reach out to a younger audience. Moreover, most marketers seem to be very sceptical about reaching out to women during IPL when they have a much assured audience in general entertainment channels.

While 36 per cent share during the first 14 matches of IPL 2010 may still be too early, media planners find these numbers very consistent vis-à-vis the last two years of IPL. They also believe that these 36 per cent are bound have some impact on GECs as in the previous years.

Ashwini Kamat, GM, MediaCom, explained, “The change in reach (approximately 10 per cent drop in Season 2 and then increase) is not significant enough to categorically say whether the interest in IPL amongst women is decreasing or increasing. So far, the GEC genre GRPs have only dropped by 5-7 per cent, with the top two GECs not being affected at all, so it is unlikely that IPL is going to significantly affect the GEC genre. Most of their viewership is coming from the snacking genres like movies, music, news, lifestyle, etc. However, it is far more cost efficient to get female audiences using GEC even during the IPL.”

Kunal Jamuar, GM, Madison Media, observed, “Female viewership for IPL has grown tremendously, the 36 per cent is a far larger base and it means that sizable numbers of women are watching IPL. Besides this, it also shows that now cricket is breaking gender barriers. I believe that 36 per cent is fairly a good number, which advertisers or brands cannot afford to ignore, as this is a large segment of women audience.”

Nikhil Rangnekar, Executive Director, India West, Starcom Worldwide, noted, “I believe 36 per cent, as compared to the previous years, is a fairly consistent viewership among women. However, IPL has still not reached a stage where marketers would want to reach out to women. While the contributory share of female audience - 36 per cent – is more or less consistent as compared to the previous years, they are bound to impact the GECs and it has to happen as it so far had.”

Sanjay Sharma, Director, Synergy, stressed, “The objective of IPL since the beginning has been to entertain, hence contributory share of 36 per cent among female audience is also a function of matches happening in prime time. These numbers are consistent of sorts with no dramatic increase or decline in viewership share. However, I feel GECs will be impacted, but not more than the impact it had during IPL2 and the inaugural season.”