MUMBAI: The cricket World Cup has made a cautionary statement to Hindi general entertainment channels as it has opened to strong debut ratings.

The inaugural World Cup match between India and Bangladesh has delivered a peak rating of 12.48 TVR across six metros, 11 per cent higher than the Indian Premier League (IPL) opener.

The match rated an average TVR of 7.8, according to Tam data (c&s 4+). The match reached out to 27.4 million consumers across six metros.
 
 A media buyer expressed satisfaction at the initial performance. "The fact that an India game would do better than the IPL was bound to happen. The question is what viewership will non India matches have. I expect a big dip initially for non India games, especially those featuring weak teams. But the World Cup has gotten off to a solid start," he said.

Star Cricket got an average TVR of 3.03 which is more than double what Doordarshan managed at 1.5.

ESPN got a TVR of 2.47 while Star Sports, which is offering a Hindi feed, got a TVR of 0.89. 
 
Bangalore top scored in the ratings game, getting an average TVR of 9.17 for the first match. Mumbai followed with 9.14 TVR, while Kolkata fetched a TVR of 7.7, Delhi a TVR of 7.65, Hyderabad a TVR of 6.43 and Chennai a TVR of 4.94.

ESS said Tuesday its site, www.espnstar.com, delivered over 8.5 million page views on the first match day. The live streaming of ICC Cricket World Cup on the website delivered over three million video requests so far. The web streaming attracted one million plus unique video viewers.

ESPN Software India executive VP advertising sales and new media Sanjay Kailash said, “We are indeed delighted with the ratings. There have been lots of discussions and comparisons with rival properties over the past few months but the opening match of the tournament has clearly proved the fact that ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 is indeed the ‘The Cup That Counts’."
 
ESS expects the ratings to go up further as the Indian Cricket team marches on in its quest for victory.

The real test for ESS, however, will come in the matches that do not engage the Indian team. "It will be wrong to compare the IPL opener with the World Cup opener as India was involved in the contest. We will have to wait for a longer period of ratings if we are to compare the world‘s two hottest cricketing properties," a media analyst said.