Although the game of cricket has always been a hot property in India and gathers a lot of attention, the ongoing 2022 edition of the cash-rich Indian Premier League’s (IPL) viewership has registered a decline and even the TV ratings has fallen.
Industrialist Harsh Goenka has tweeted six reasons for the decline in the television ratings (TVR) of IPL 2022. According to him, the first reason is the poor performance of crowd favourites Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, who among them have won nine of the 14 editions played so far.
Goenka said the fact that “heroes like Virat (Kohli), (MS) Dhoni, Rohit (Sharma) haven’t fired yet” has also played a role in the decline of ratings. Another reason according to him is the fatigue caused among fans because of the extra matches following the expansion of the league with the addition of two new teams.
According to him, fan engagement is lower because all matches are being played in the Mumbai region because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Goenka pointed out that the ratings have declined because people prefer to go out nowadays after being forced to watch TV at home because of the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in restaurants, theatres, shopping malls and other means of entertainment being shut down to avoid big crowds for major parts of the last two year.
According to some estimates, the made-for-TV T20 league has seen a massive 33 per cent decline in TV ratings and a 14 per cent drop in its viewers. The first eight matches of the IPL 2022 scored a TVR of 2.52 as compared to 3.73 in the last season.