WPL Wrapped Up: An insight into WPL’s viewership

Mumbai Indians lifted the inaugural WPL trophy at a packed Brabourne stadium, and with that the tournament was nothing less than a tremendous success.

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The first edition of the historic Women’s Premier league garnered unprecedented attention in terms of stats.

The whole cricket community was waiting for this event to come true and it did so, in style. Let’s relive the WPL once again in numbers that were once looking like a dream.  

In terms of the audience in the stadium, the response was brilliant. Nearly 35000 people were present in the final and over 20000 people in the eliminator, which is a clear indication of how WPL was successful in terms of pulling the crowd throughout the course of the tournament.

In terms of cumulative LIVE reach, in Week 1, 51 million people watched it LIVE while the number went up to 61 million in week 2.

The duration of advertising spots in the matches also went up from 1,800 seconds of air time during the first match to 2700 seconds in the14th. Viacom18 Sports, the official broadcaster, signed around 10 sponsors; and every team sold out nearly every possible advertising slot.

However, a fascinating story emerges when we take a look at the numbers of the viewership on digital and TV.

JioCinema, the official digital streaming platform for the WPL, clocked the highest watch time per user, nearly 50 minutes per match. Asper the official release, it delivered the highest viewership for any women’s event globally including over 10 million new viewers turning in to watch the final between MI and DC.

The television figures though haven't been that great.  The TV rating for the first week was 0.22which went up to 0.28 in the second and 0.27 in the third. Though not extraordinary, these will gain momentum over time as it was only the first edition of WPL.

With the IPL coming up, the digital and TV rights are well balanced around 57.5cr per match. Is this an indication of the shift from TV to digital? Will WPL be able to create a stronger digital base? Only time will tell.

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