Star Sports said that cricket viewership has continued to show impressive growth in 2022 with India’s opening match against Pakistan in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup and the first test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia gaining massive viewership.
The match between India and Pakistan at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup on February 12 registered a cumulative reach of 28 million, as per Star Sports.
This match, kickstarting India’s campaign in the Women’s T20 World Cup, clocked a total of 1.39 billion minutes with 7.3 million AMAs, making it the second most-watched women’s T20, second only to the India-Australia Finale played in ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020.
Star Sports also said that it showed a 91% increase in AMA’s compared to India’s opening match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020 against Australia.
The first Test of the Border-Gavaskar trophy between India and Australia also turned in impressive viewing figures, breaking into the top three for most-watched bilateral test matches in the last five years (since 2018).
The 1st Test between India and Australia registered 5.5 million AMAs which placed it just behind two tests of the India v England four-match series in 2021, one of which was a Day-night match.
Sanjog Gupta, Head – Sports, Disney Star, said, “Cricket viewership on TV continues to deliver impressive figures. The recent results are a strong testament to Star Sports’ brand of storytelling expressed through its compelling marketing campaigns and riveting programming which has fuelled the stature of the events. Building the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as an unmissable contest between the top test teams in the world with the added context of a place in the World Test Championship final on the line, fuelled appeal for the series. The Women’s World T20 is the culmination of a year-long campaign to promote Women’s Cricket and drive support for Team India.”
“We are overjoyed that our continued focus on the women’s game, which included high decibel campaigns and increased supply of content, is delivering strong results, and fuelling growth of the game. These results also strengthen our belief that Star Sports continues to be the most loved brand and platform for fans to engage with marquee cricket properties.”