Disney Star set to break all HD viewership records with TATA IPL 2023

Official broadcaster of TATA IPL – Disney Star is targeting 90 million viewers on HD with the launch of new HD channels in Star Sports Tamil HD and Star Sports Telugu HD, empowering big IPL viewership southern markets with high-definition feed. HD viewership during IPL in the South was under-indexed by almost 1/3rd due to the absence of regional HD channels which will now change with new channels launches ahead of TATA IPL 2023.

HD TV in India has consistently showcased a dominating scale for brands targeting premium viewers and the numbers are growing further at an exponential rate. As per BARC, the total HD households in India as of January 2023 stand at 70 million, growing 32% in just the last nine months and 100% in two years. Total HD viewers in India have now grown close to 200 million, a scale that is by far unmatched for brands looking to target premium audiences. At this growth rate by the time TATA IPL begins, HD households could grow further, increasing the scale of HD viewers in India even more.

Star Sports will garner significant benefit from this growth and the launch of the southern HD channels will be a driving factor for reaching close to 90 million HD viewers in IPL. The south region has been a massive market in terms of TV viewership for IPL and the affinity to regional language content in the region is the highest in the country. The access to high quality live sports content in the regional languages will be a big boost for the overall HD viewership in India, giving advertisers an enormous scale to target premium viewers during IPL 2023.

Premium viewers share a high affinity for watching IPL on HD channels. As per BARC, 81% of HD viewers are from NCCS AB with 3x higher affinity among NCCS A in Megacities. Several brands across premium categories have leveraged IPL on HD feed and witnessed stellar results in terms of brand and business metrics. The sheer scale of HD viewers in India makes it an unmissable proposition for brands and the growth in HD homes will make the opportunity an ever grander this IPL.