CT 2017: India v Pakistan game garnered record viewership

The league stage game between India and Pakistan in the ongoing edition of the Champions Trophy lived up to the expectations built around it. The marquee clash at Birmingham that saw team India come up as the victorious side on the day had a record television viewership. As per the recent reports in the Indiatimes, the charts of the TV viewership saw record breaking numbers.

The match was played on June 4 at Edgbaston. Interestingly, the venue of the match had also seen a record attendance during the game. The match was reached out to over 20 crore people, or a total reach of 201 million. In order to get better understanding, the comparison numbers of the IPL will help. The 2017 edition of the IPL had a cumulative viewership of 411 million across the 60 matches played over the span of a month and a half.

Another staggering number was that of the impressions – the number of viewrs at any time during the broadcast. The India v Pakistan game had a total of 47.45 million impressions, as per the reports of BARC. This is the highest ever in the history since the BARC came into functioning. The national COO of the Publicis Group-owneed firm Starcom, Basabdatta Chowdhury, the expectations were always going to be high from the India-Pakistan game.

Record numbers

“We were expecting high ratings for this match. It would have been a surprise in case viewership was low. Having said that, the reach of 201 million has surpassed our expectations,” he quoted.

“ICC Champions Trophy 2017 has been an impressive event in terms of scale, reach and following. With the India-Pakistan match setting a new viewership record on the Star Sports network, becoming the highest rated ODI match in BARC history, this edition of the CT17 has validated that there is nothing bigger than cricket for Indian audiences,” a spokesperson of Star India quoted.