Declining interest in IPL: Viewership numbers for this season second lowest for all seasons

Confirming Times of India's report that the IPL viewership numbers for this season have been quite low, figures released show that this is the second poorest start to an IPL season in terms of audience interest.

According to a report in an English daily, the latest numbers released by the new rating mechanism of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), which took over from the erstwhile TAM ratings from March, indicate that the IPL had an average Television Viewership Rating (TVR) of 3.50 for the first six matches. 

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The first game of the tournament, between defending champions Mumbai Indians and debutant franchise Rising Pune Supergiants, attracted an audience of just 3.24 acording to TVR. The next match, between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils, dipped to 2.55. The numbers for the following five matches were 2.98, 3.50, 3.66, 2.86 and 2.23 respectively.

The first week of matches at IPL 8 on the other hand, had attracted a TVR of 4.5. The first match between KKR and Mumbai was the most watched of the first five games, with a 5.4 TVR, followed by 4.7, 4.5, 2.4 and 5.3, says the report.

In 2013, the first five games got a 3.8 TVR, while in 2012 the first week of the IPL - six matches - recorded an average of rating of 4.64. A year earlier, it had been 3.76. The lowest TVR for the first week was in 2014, at 3.10.

But there is one mitigating factor. BARC India has a methodology, sample size and formula different from that of TAM. For this reason, a pure comparison of this year's figures with those of past years may be unfair. Data generated by BARC is from a sample spread across rural and urban parts of India, unlike how TAM operated.

However, it is clear also from the half-full stands at many venues that spectator interest in IPL has reduced, and this would also indicate a corresponding loss in TV viewership.