MUMBAI: The first 10 World Cup matches have fetched an average TVR of 2.06 compared to a rating of 2.04 in 2007, demonstrating that the current edition is putting up a stronger performance as the game is played in the Indian subcontinent.

The nail-biting World Cup encounter between Pakistan and Sri Lanka stands as the second most-watched match, trailing behind the India-Bangladesh opener.
 
The keenly fought contest got a peak TVR of 9.19 and an average rating of 3.28. 51 million viewers tuned in to watch that match, according to data from Tam Sports (c&s4+ all India).

The India-Bangladesh one-sided contest, in contrast, got a peak TVR of 12.2 and an average rating of 7.47 across the country.

"The trend shows that the India matches get higher ratings, even if the match is imbalanced. But overall, this World Cup is doing better than the previous one," a media analyst said.
 
In the current World Cup, just two matches have failed to reach a TVR of 1 compared to four in 2007. Surprisingly, one of them was the Australia versus New Zealand encounter which only got a rating of 0.68.

However, it must be bourne in mind that the match started in the morning. Timing, undoubtedly, is key as can be seen from the fact that Bangladesh versus Ireland encounter, two weak teams, got a rating of 1; the match, played the same day, started at 2 pm.
 
According to Tam data, 29 million people tuned in for this match compared to 17 million people for the Australia versus New Zealand match.

Star cricket continues to fare better than Star Sports. The Pakistan-Sri lanka match saw 39 million viewers tuning in to Star Cricket compared to 19 million on Star Sports.