T20 World Cup on TV: A Primetime spectacle that media plans cannot ignore! 

For the first time ever United States of America will play co-host to a major cricketing event with the West Indies, giving the T20 World Cup a shoutout for the most glamourous and high-octane megaevent of the year.

Much to the delight of viewers and advertisers, the timings for T20 World Cup are perfectly aligned with Indian primetime. The total number of primetime games is 2X more than any other past T20 World Cup, making it a collective viewing affair that advertisers could capitalize on to elevate brand impact.  

Strong Tailwinds for T20 World Cup on TV

Less than 6 months ago, the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 created history as the TV viewership for the tournament broke all past viewership records, reaching 518 million viewers in and clocking its highest ever watch-time of 422 billion minutes in merely 45 days.

The ongoing IPL 2024 has reinforced the power of TV in attracting more and more viewers to the platform year-on-year. Just the first 3 weeks of IPL 2024 attracted 450 million viewers on television, a scale like never before. With cricket viewership on TV redefining scale for brands, the T20 World Cup is a must for advertisers irrespective of their categories.   

Why TV is the place to be for brands?

Cricket World Cups on Television have proven to showcase incredible scale. Not only was the Cricket World Cup in 2023 its biggest ever edition, but it also managed to deliver a single day reach of 300 million+ viewers on television on the final day.

That reach aggregation, to put into perspective, is equivalent to the total UPI users in India and Indian online shoppers. With 422 billion minutes of viewing on TV, the World Cup became the most watched edition in the history of the event.

The upcoming T20 World Cup sets up a mega encounter between archrivals India and Pakistan on Sunday, 9th June 2024. The unforgettable match in the last T20 World Cup in 2022 garnered an incredible 200 million viewing hours on television.

With the universal appeal that T20 commands as a high-octane format and the sheer unpredictability of outcomes, non-India matches are a force to reckon with, reaching ~200 million viewers on TV. Cricket World Cups on TV are also known to have the largest aggregation of female viewers, with the last edition of the T20 World Cup contributing an incredible 46% of overall TV viewership. 

Rapidly growing TV viewership for cricket attracts new and missing advertisers

As per a recent report by TAM, the ongoing IPL has witnessed a 59% and 38% increase in categories and advertisers on TV. Over the last 2 years, the rise and rise of cricket viewership on TV has drawn several key categories that were earlier either not leveraging cricket as a genre or giving the platform a miss due to dwindling market situations.

These include FMCG (HUL, Parle, Amul, Dabur, Joy Personal Care, Reckitt), BFSI (HDFC, IndusInd Bank, Mahindra Finance, Axis Bank) and Online Services (Dream11, Rupay, Groww, PhonePe, Rapido).

Traditionally, Cricket World Cups on TV have seen high participation from categories like Consumer Durables, Infra and Automobiles with brands like Samsung, Skoda, Jindal Panther, Mahindra Auto, Haier and Hero Motocorp leveraging editions.  

The T20 World Cup will be the last major cricketing event till next summer, and considering the significant scale and distinct business impact that TV has proven to deliver, several categories will embrace the opportunity with open arms.