The Hindu Business Line : Sachin’s ton a big hit for viewership

The nation loves Sachin Tendulkar and his hundred in Thursday’s match against Australia resulted in a surge in television ratings. According to data from overnight television audience measuring agency aMap, the fifth India-Australia ODI was the most watched match of the series.

The match received a TRP rating of 2.4 on Neo Cricket and 3.9 on DD National. Over five crore people tuned in to watch the match which finished in the last over with India losing by three runs. Almost two crore people saw the match on Neo Cricket, the highest so far in the series. For the first match of the ODI series (October 25), the ratings hovered at 1.1 on Neo Cricket and 2.3 on DD1.

For Thursday’s match, while the viewership started off fairly slowly, by the time the Indian innings started with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag setting off India to a good start, the ratings had shot up to 5.9 on DD National and 3.7 on Neo Cricket. When the Australians plundered their way to an imposing 350, the match could only muster up ratings of 2.2 on DD National and 1.3 on Neo Cricket.

According to the data on the aMap Web site, the last half hour of the match witnessed a net reach of 7.6 per cent. The TRP ratings from aMap for the match in Hyderabad were higher than the ratings of the Champions League T20 and Champions Trophy. “It is the best-ever ratings in the recent past for both channels. It is getting better with each match. At this rate, I guess the next two matches will get even better,” said Mr Joseph Eapen, Chief Executive Officer, aMap, commenting on the increased ratings on Thursday.

Mr Sai Nagesh, Chief Growth Officer, Dentsu Media said, “For a long time India hasn’t won. But in this series, even the matches which India lost were closely fought. People like to see a good performance from India.”

Neo Cricket claims to have beaten the recently held Champions League T20 TRPs by 70 per cent and IPL-2 by 16 per cent. The average rating for CS 4+ audience is close to 5 TVRs (television viewer ratings), according to latest data from TAM Media Research.

Targeting revenues of Rs 150 crore for the series, Mr Abhishek Verma, Head of Marketing and Communications, Neo Sports Broadcast Pvt Ltd, said, “We are excited about the high TRP ratings achieved, and this has proved once again that ODI cricket is here to stay.”

The ratings, he pointed out, have been consistent even for the matches India lost.

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