Another high-octane season of the cash-rich tournament, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 has concluded on a successful note.
From five sixes being pondered in the final over to win the game to no ball on the final delivery to lose an easy in-hand match, fans witnessed all of it. We saw 200-plus runs being made on regular occasions as well as the same scores being chased down with flair. Even on the final day of the league, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) managed to chase 171 runs in 15 overs.
Just like on-field, records were broken off the field as well, the official digital streaming partner of the IPL 2023-27, JioCinema set multiple streaming records during the recently concluded season of the domestic T20 league.
According to research by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the average user time spent viewing an IPL match on JioCinema surpassed 60 minutes, a feat comparable to linear TV, which still averages around 60 minutes.
This season has been one of the most successful in terms of concurrent views for the prominent OTT platform. Straightaway in the first five weeks of the contest, Viacom18‘s entity registered over 1300 crore video views. This accomplishment demonstrated the platform’s growing popularity among users who like to consume their favourite content on the go.
There were also more records that JioCinema created, including 2.2 crore concurrent viewers during the clash between CSK and Rajasthan Royals (RR) on April 12. During the southern derby between CSK and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 17, the viewership on the OTT platform clocked 2.4 crore concurrent viewers.
JioCinema also had a massive concurrent viewership on May 22 when CSK faced Gujarat Titans (GT)Â in the Qualifier 1 match, the game received 2.5 crore viewers. In addition, during Qualifier 2 between GTÂ and Mumbai Indians (MI), the OTT platform attracted a whopping 2.57 crore concurrent viewers. Concurrent viewership soared when Shubman Gill, produced a magnificent century, and the skipper, Hardik Pandya, performed a blazing cameo.
JioCinema hit it out of the park when it garnered a viewership of 3.2 crore concurrent viewers during the league’s final between CSK and GT on May 29. The viewership surged to 32 million concurrent viewers when Sai Sudharsan was batting on 96.
Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj, said, “We are thrilled to announce that JioCinema has set a ground-breaking milestone by breaking the world record of concurrent viewers on digital. It is a testament to our constant endeavor of offering an unparalleled experience of TATA IPL to fans and viewers across every corner of the country.
With this many viewers, JioCinema broke the world record set by Disney+ Hotstar in July 2019, which was recorded at 25.3 million during the ICC Men’s World Cup 2019. For many years, the record stood untouched until the IPL 2023 streaming on JioCinema saw the global record smashed several times.
The OTT platform’s broadcasting strategy, which featured free streaming of the whole IPL 2023 action, led to multiple world viewing records being broken during the season.
The goal of broadcasting for free was to attract more fans and brands and inform them that JioCinema is streaming it on the web. Moreover, IPL 2023 was emphatic in terms of the quality of matches fans got to witness. To beat this season in terms of viewership, JioCinema’s think-tank needs to outdo itself for the edition next year.