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Hero ISL sizzles in opening week

Over 170 million Indians witness the birth of a footballing nation; league debuts on starsports.com with 5 million visits – highest viewership for a non-cricketing event in India; scores on social media with 2.5 billion impressions

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Hero ISL tops in Asia

Hero ISL sizzles in opening week

Over 170 million Indians witness the birth of a footballing nation; league debuts on starsports.com with 5 million visits – highest viewership for a non-cricketing event in India; scores on social media with 2.5 billion impressions

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | October 27, 2014

hero-indian-super-leagueThe first edition of Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) opened a new chapter for Indian football, sizzling across the television screens of 170 million Indian viewers in the opening week alone making it a milestone in the history of Indian sport. This is the biggest phenomenon to hit the world of football in India.

About 75 million people witnessed the birth of a footballing nation on day one and 170 million in week one. This is 12 times FIFA World Cup 2014 opening day and double of opening week reach for FIFA World Cup 2014 in India. The weekly reach is over 20-30X of the other football leagues viewership in India.

Tournament Day 1 Reach (mn) Week 1 Reach (mn)
Indian Super League 74.7 170.6
Other Football Events
FIFA World Cup 6.3 87.2
Calcutta Football League 4.3 8.4
I-League 1.0 5.3
English Premier League 1.8 8.2

TAM Panel CS4+; Extrapolated to all TV viewing universe using a standard industry conversion factor

These are aggregated reach numbers across 8 channels (Star Sports 2 (English), Star Sports 3 (Hindi), Star Sports HD 2 (English), Star Gold (Hindi), Star Utsav (Hindi), Asianet Movies (Malayalam), Jalsha Movies (Bengali) and Suvarna Plus (Kannada). (Tam Panel CS4+; extrapolated to all TV viewing universe).

The viewership numbers shot through the roof not only on television, but also online on www.starsports.com.The website recorded ~800,000 visits each for the first two days of the tournament which is 80 per cent of the average IPL viewership on starsports.com. No other non-cricketing event has seen such digital traction in India. The number of visitors to the site continued to grow as the League gained momentum and recorded 5 million visits over the opening week.

Hero Indian Super League has taken digital media by storm with 2.5 billion potential impressions on digital so far. Within 24 hours of the grand kick off, the league dominated Twitter trends in India with a perfect score of 10 out 10 topics on web and 15 out of 17 topics on mobile as the country revelled in the birth of a footballing nation. On Facebook the league trended at No. 1 in India with #IndianSuperLeague.

Nita Ambani Nita Ambani

Nita Ambani, Founding Chairperson, Football Sports Development, said, “I am absolutely delighted by the response the Hero Indian Super League has received so far. Right from the outset, Hero Indian Super League has been geared towards one overarching objective – to develop football across the country in a systematic and holistic manner. The enthusiasm with which the Hero Indian Super league has been greeted, gives us the perfect platform from which to drive grassroots development of football in India.”

Uday Shankar Uday Shankar

Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India, said, “The early success of the Hero Indian Super League has been phenomenal as millions of fans have thronged to watch the action – on television, on digital and in-stadia. This is a historic moment in the era of sports in India as fans embrace the global game and see a quality of football never witnessed before being played in India. This is the first step in a long journey of making India a footballing nation and providing the platform for future champions to emerge. The endeavour has been to create a world class tournament to global production standards with the ubiquitous reach and platform of the Star network. We thank our fans for their belief and will redouble our efforts to make this a truly spectacular tournament.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

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