India-England tie gets mammoth ratings

India-England tie gets mammoth ratings

MUMBAI: The cricket World Cup is climbing new heights, taking home record ratings at the early stage of the competition.

The cliff-hanger tied match between India and England has drawn in a peak rating of 24.09 TVR in six metros, easily becoming the most-watched contest so far.
 
The match, on 27 February, got a rating of 12.63 TVR, eclipsing by a mile the ratings that the India-Bangladesh debut contest got (7.8 TVR). Last time, the India versus Bermuda encounter got a TVR of 10.96.

According to data from Tam Sports (6 Metros, C&S 4+), 44 per cent of the C&S audience watched the match.

While 21 million viewers watched the match on Star Cricket, eight million hooked on to Star Sports, nine million to Doordarshan and four million to ESPN.
 
On Star Cricket, the match fetched a rating of 7.26 TVR compared to 2.58 TVR on Star Sports, 1.81 TVR on DD and 1.07 on ESPN.

After the India-England match, the next three non India matches could not manage a TVR of 1. This is partly due to the fact that the matches were one sided. The match where West Indies thumped Netherlands got a TVR of 0.81 and the one where Sri Lanka mauled Kenya by nine wickets got a TVR of 0.88.

Overall, the first 14 matches of the cricket World Cup have scored a TVR of 2.56. In 2007, the average rating for the same period was 2.3 TVR.
 
If the ratings of previous one-sided matches are any indication, then the non India matches could experience a dramatic slide. Viewers are drawn by a contest and if there isn‘t any, then there might not be a reason to tune in for a particular match.

If there is a match that should do well, it is the one where Ireland caused the upset of the event by beating England in a fantastic run chase.