IPL 2016 TV ratings significantly drop

The TV ratings evaluated viewership ratings for the first week of IPL 2016, comparing to corresponding period last year.

The latest numbers accessed by the Indian newspaper indicate that the IPL had an average TVR (Television Viewership Rating) – a time-weighted figure factoring in the number of viewers and how much time they spent watching – of 3.50 for the first six matches.

Game one of the tournament, between defending champions Mumbai Indians and debutant franchise Rising Pune Supergiants, attracted an audience of 3.24.

The report states there are signs that there is viewership apathy towards the IPL.

The next match, between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils, dropped to 2.55. The numbers for the following five matches were 2.98, 3.50, 3.66, 2.86 and 2.23 respectively.

This is a significant dip from the same period from last year when the first five matches of IPL 8 were sampled by 105 million unique viewers, which represented a nine percent spike from 2014.

While the 2015 IPL opening ceremony attracted dismal ratings of 0.94, the first week of matches attracted an average TVR of 4.5. The first match between KKR and Mumbai was the most watched of the first five games, with a 5.4 TVR, followed by 4.7, 4.5, 2.4 and 5.3.