The viewership data for IPL 4 among audiences over 15 years of age, as tracked by Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMap) across analog cable and DTH households, throw up some interesting findings.

Viewership ratings of IPL matches in DTH households register a drop during the weekends.

In the period from April 8 (when IPL 4 began) to May 10, the average viewership rating of all afternoon matches was 2.2 in both analog and DTH households.

As one would expect, the evening matches saw a jump in ratings, with cable households registering 3.4 and DTH households registering 2.6.

Split by weekday and weekend matches, analog households saw ratings of 3.1 on weekends (for both afternoon and evening matches), up from 2.9 for weekday matches. On the other hand, DTH homes registered a drop from 2.5 ratings on weekdays to 2.3 on weekends.

According to some industry watchers, this can be attributed to the culture of weekend outings in urban households, and wider choice of content available on DTH platforms.

The ratings are a function of the number of people who watched the matches and the time spent.

Team Loyalty

Team loyalty too seems to be different in DTH and analog households. The list of five most watched teams in DTH households is led by the Mumbai Indians with the Pune Warriors, Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils following in that order.

But Sachin's Mumbai, Dhoni's Chennai and Yuvraj Singh's Pune teams do not feature among the five most viewed teams in analog homes. Matches featuring Royal Challengers Bangalore are the most watched in analog homes, according to aMap.

Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils round off the top five, in that order.

gokul.k@thehindu.co.in

comment COMMENT NOW