‘IPL2 numbers likely to remain low until the first week of May’

The television ratings for all the eight days of the IPL matches are out and according to TAM Media Research, the average television ratings for these eight days (April 19-25, 2009) is merely 4.61. While the numbers may be low and perhaps in line with expectations, it is widely believed at as the tournament progresses, there would be more surprises rating wise and the teams’ performance as well. Despite more viewership, the reason for the low ratings is possibly because those viewers don’t stick to the game entirely.

Sandeep Lakhina, COO, Starcom Worldwide, South Asia, told exchange4media, “I am not unhappy with the numbers, although I was anticipating the ratings to be about 5 or so. However, these are average ratings and the number of people who are watching IPL have increased, but the stickiness is not there for whatever reasons. I believe the numbers will continue to be in the same line right now, but probably after the first week of May and in the last 10 days of the tournament, I think we will see a jump in ratings.”

Rajneesh Chaturvedi, National Director, MEC Access, said, “These ratings are slightly low. We at MEC had predicted about 15 per cent less as compared to last year, and I would attribute these low ratings to the inclement weather conditions, which led to two of the matches being washed out, while one match was not played for the entire duration. However, the ratings are likely to increase as the tournament progresses and more interesting matches come up.”