Television continues to rule the roost as far as driving reach is concerned among media platforms in India. As per BARC, 700 million viewers watched sports on TV last year. That is by far the largest audience accumulation across platforms and TV has proven to be the preferred choice for sports fans across India. Cricket has been at the helm of this massive audience coverage. 9 out of 10 Indian homes watch cricket on television, showcasing how live sports continue to be an experience viewers prefer watching on the big screen.
According to the BARC, the penetration of TVs in India stands at a staggering 900 million audiences. In addition, TV has the potential to reach another 500 million viewers with headroom to expand to 100 million households with live sports predominantly driving this growth.
Speaking on the penetration of TV, K Madhavan, President – Walt Disney Company India says, “The television penetration in this country is only 70% - i.e., we have 300 Mn households and even today barely 200 million households are connected to TV. That is another positive thing for the industry.”
The domination of live sports as a content genre in India and across the globe has been spectacular. K Madhavan mentioned in a recent interview that “Sports today is almost a $1 billion ad revenue, or 30% of overall adex in India and can go up to $3 billion in another five years”.
The upcoming festive season is slated to be a massive one for advertisers to leverage live sports on TV with the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 starting on 16th October. The megaevent has been the largest reach platform with unparalleled fervour for cricket among viewers. This is a golden opportunity for brands to engage with over 400 million passionate audiences in less than a month.
