Mumbai, March 28 (IANS): The opening day of the Indian Premier League's (IPL) 17th season delivered a record-breaking TV viewership with 16.8 Crore viewers.
On the opening day of IPL 2024 on the Disney Star network, the official broadcaster of the league, registered a watch-time of 1276 crore minutes, the highest ever for the opening day of any IPL season.
The record-breaking TV viewership on the opening Day comes on the back of an incredible lead-up to the 17th season which attracted more than 24.5 Crore unique viewers till a week prior to the start of the tournament.
The 17th season of IPL, also witnessed the highest-ever peak TV concurrency for a league's opening day, with 6.1 crore viewers watching the broadcast simultaneously on the Disney Star network.
In comparison, on the digital, JioCinema had clocked 11.3 crore viewers on the first day of the IPL. The streamer claimed that it registered a 51% jump over day one of IPL 2023. The total watch time on JioCinema on day 1 was 660 crore minutes, it said in a statement.
The Opening Day of IPL 2024 on the Disney Star network, for the first time ever, featured 8 of the 10 captains.
A star-studded line-up of talent comprising IPL title winners, World Cup champions, reputed coaches and legends from the game presented the opening Day. It saw Navjot Singh Sidhu return to the commentary box and join India’s World Champions Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar and K Srikkanth.
It witnessed debuts of Steve Smith and Stuart Broad, who join legends Brian Lara, Matthew Hayden, Kevin Pietersen, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn in presenting IPL 2024.
CSK's former stars Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, L Balaji and Subramaniam Badrinath along with IPL champions Vinay Kumar and Venugopal Rao were at the forefront of Disney Star’s regional feeds in 9 languages.
The ensemble of 120 cricketers was complimented by national and regional celebrities as well as fan-favourite presenters and content creators, to deliver wholesome entertainment on the Opening Day.