This traffic is on back of Star India’s marketing campaign for Starsports.com as well as the fact that it was offering IPL content to consumers free of cost, supported by advertisements. Photo: Hindustan Times
Video streaming of IPL on Starsports.com has attracted over a million unique visitors every day during the first week of the tournament
While the hype around the seventh season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) may be subdued this year, the interest around the popular Twenty20 (T20) tournament hasn’t dipped, if audience numbers on Starsports.com, the online arm of broadcaster Star India Pvt. Ltd, are anything to go by.
According to a statement issued byStar India, the video streaming of the IPL on Starsports.com, attracted over a million unique visitors every day during the first week of the tournament.
During this period starting 16 April, Starsports.com attracted around 4.7 million unique visitors across the web and mobile, delivering more than 10 million consumer visits, the statement said.
This traffic is on the back of a high-decibel marketing campaign across their network for Starsports.com as well as the fact that the media company was offering the content to consumers free of cost, supported by advertisements.
According to internal data provided by the company, 150 million minutes of video were consumed by users during the first seven matches played in the ongoing IPL—with an average of more than 32 minutes per match.
Consumption on mobile phones has also been on the rise since the beginning of the tournament and currently stands at 42% of the overall traffic. Almost 85 % of the viewer base is in the 18-24 age group with the top-eight metro cities contributing 60% of the overall traffic. The traffic of female viewers also saw a significant surge, contributing 27% of the overall audience, the statement said.
In season six of the IPL last year, 55 million viewed the tournament onYouTube, the video-sharing platform fromGoogle Inc.This year, Times Internet Ltd and its partner Star India are sparing no effort to draw audiences to the mobile and online platforms.
Times Internet had won the Internet and mobile broadcast rights for IPL for Rs261.6 crore crore in 2011. Early this year, it teamed up with Star India to share the rights with Starsports.com, the broadcaster’s online brand.
Video streaming of IPL 2014 on Starsports.com has attractedHindustan Unilever Ltdas the presenting sponsor andAmazon.in,Toyota,ITC Personal CareandReckitt Benckiseras associate sponsors.
Source: Live Mint ?
