Two Phase IPL, Overseas Friendly Games: Jay Shah Reveals IPL's Future, But Denies Dip in Viewership

After the Covid outbreak, the BCCI was forced to take the IPL to UAE. Especially in 2021, BCCI hosted the league in two phases. The first phase began in India on April 10 which was later suspended. Later, it resumed in UAE five months later. Interestingly, this could be the way forward for the IPL which is expanding not only in financial value but also among the number of matches. This season itself saw 74 games after the introduction of two new teams in Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Supergiants. In-fact, the franchise owners want the tournament to take a leaf out of  2021 and conduct it in two phases. Speaking to PTI, Jay Shah confirmed that such move might see the day of light.

“We are having discussions with various stake-holders. There are also multiple proposals for all the IPL franchises of playing friendlies overseas. That idea is being seriously contemplated but for that we also need to speak to other boards as we would need to know the schedule of international players,” he said.

Despite high numbers in 2020 and 2021, IPL this season saw a dip in viewership due to viewer fatigue. When asked about the reason behind it, Shah completely refuted the claim, saying there was no dip. He said since people started going out in 2022, they enjoyed the tournaments from hotels, pubs or public venues rather than watching it in their households which amounted to lower TRPs.

“I don’t agree that there has been a viewership dip. You have to factor in pre-COVID and post-COVID numbers. The 2020 and 2021 IPL viewership numbers skyrocketed because cricket was the only source of live sporting entertainment for the Indian public. People were unable to venture out due to COVID-19. So the figures saw a sharp rise.”

“Now in 2022, the same public after the return of a certain amount of normalcy is venturing out. People are socialising, going out for dinners, taking vacations which they didn’t do in the last two years. Also, when you calculate viewership, this year, during evening games, you would have hundreds watching it on TV while sitting in a pub or a restaurant,” he added.

“So there are hundreds of fans watching an IPL match on one DTH (Direct To Home) connection. Therefore, if you calculate viewership numbers, I would want you to calculate on the basis of 2019 viewership numbers vis-a-vis 2022.”

The TV ratings (TVR) saw a massive 33 per cent drop in the opening week.

As per data sourced from subscribers of BARC India, the first eight matches of the IPL 2022 scored a TVR of 2.52, compared to a TVR of 3.75 in the last season. Overall reach of the first week also dropped 14 per cent to 229.06 million, down from 267.7 million in the last year for all India, 2+ years population. Even during the pre-Covid time (2019), the overall reach was at 268 million, while ratings were at 3.85 TVR.