Over 100 million Indian viewers tune in on the opening day of World Cup
67% of the viewership for the opening day's game, Australia vs England, came from Hindi + vernacular feeds with English at 33%
ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 recorded an impressive opening with 101 million Indian viewers (TAM data CS4+ extrapolated to the universe using a standard conversion factor) tuning in on the first day of the once in four year tournament. The inaugural day saw New-Zealand vs Sri Lanka and England vs Australia face off in the opening stages for the cup.
67% of the viewership for the opening day’s game, Australia vs England, came from Hindi + vernacular feeds with English at 33%. This reflects a shift as compared to the prior edition of the World Cup where English dominated with a 55% share.
The World Cup buzz renewed the Australia - England rivalry as viewers lined up in big numbers to watch the co-hosts take on their arch rivals, irrespective of the time zone. The 9 am game delivered 2.5X of the ratings of the recently concluded tri-series and over ten times the viewership of any other Australia-England game, including day & night matches, in the last one year.
With nearly 4 million households having access to HD, Star Sports aired the games across a network of 4 HD channels including the newly launched Star Sports HD3, India’s first all Hindi HD channel for sports. In a global first Star Sports 4K was launched giving cricket fans a chance to enjoy their favourite sport in ultra-HD.
The World Cup buzz also dominated the social trends online with fans extremely vocal in their enthusiasm. The opening day witnessed 131,000 conversations from 80,000 unique authors delivering 1 billion impressions (in India) for the two matches.
