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Online viewership of Indian cricket up by half

Online viewership of Indian Premier League Season 6 increased by 52 percent this year. Even users in tier 2 and tier 3 cities are increasingly viewing cricket on their mobile devices.
Written by Swati Prasad, Contributor

Video consumption online is witnessing exponential growth. And what better way to elucidate this than by tracking cricket--a game most Indians are very passionate about (the spot-fixing scams notwithstanding).

According to a press statement issued by Times Internet, the official digital partner of IPL along with YouTube, IPL season 6's online viewership (across both www.boxtv.com and www.youtube.com/indiatimes) recorded a 52 percent growth over 2012 (75.2 million versus 49.3 million last year's IPL season 5).

What this means is that cricket lovers are not just glued to their TV sets, an increasing number of them are watching the matches, along with match highlights and analysis on their computers, mobile phones, tablets, and etc.

Boost from tier 2 and 3 cities

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According to Digivive, a company that has won the live mobile screening rights for the IPL 2013, viewers have so far consumed more than 900,000 hours of video feed averaging at over 42,000 hours daily.

According to statistics by mobile TV service nexGTv, IPL viewership has seen a sharp upward turn from day one of IPL 6 and so far has received more than 15 million hits, averaging at 747,959 hits per match day. The season started early April and ends this month.

"An increasing number of cricket enthusiasts are watching IPL on their mobile devices," Kesavan Kanchi Kandadai, CEO of Tangerine, a company that creates, packages and delivers video content for the IPL, told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview. Tangerine works closely with Digivive.

"With the advent of 3G and smartphones, we see an increasing trend in mobile video consumption as well," Kandadai said.

Moreover, mobile video consumption is on the rise even in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. "However, Mumbai and Delhi still steal the show in viewership figures," Kandadai said.

In response to IPL season 6's viewership statistics, Praveen Sharma, head of media sales at Google India said in a statement: "Better streaming experience, increased mobile and tablet device access and growing awareness about the availability of IPL online is fueling the growth in viewership."

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