The second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has opened with a lower television audience rating in India compared to the inaugural version last year.
The opening match between the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, which featured Indian cricketing icons Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, posted a 5.55 TVR rating compared to 8.21 in season 1, according to data by TV rating agency Tam.
"It is too early to define a TV viewing trend, but audiences could have moved to news channels as the Lok Sabha elections are in process," said a media analyst.
The second match between the Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore averaged a TVR of 5.48. The beginning of this year’s tournament coincides with the Indian general election, and it is believed viewership has dropped partly due to the clash with the campaign tours of political leaders such as Lalu Prasad Yadav, LK Advani, Sonia Gandhi and Mayawati.
Multi Screen Media – formerly Sony Entertainment Television India - owns the broadcast rights for the IPL in India. MSM president of network sales, licensing and telephony Rohit Gupta added: "The rating of 5.5 is still higher than what last year's average of 4.8 was. We are confident that things will improve further. If the ratings were down, it would be due to rain rather than the election coverage on news channels."
However, the Tam data appears to show a trend of loyalty to a local franchise emerging. Chennai achieved a TVR of 6.18 for the match which involved their local team CSK, a rating that fell to 3.08 for the second IPL match.
