Two-Phase IPL and TV viewership: Jay Shah speaks big over talking IPL to next level

The Indian Premier League 2022 was a huge success. With the addition of two new teams - Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Giants - the tournament went on for more than two months, comprising a total of 74 matches. Recently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India also broke all floodgates when they auctioned IPL media rights for the next cycle for a whopping INR 48,390.5 crore.

In a recent interview, while talking about the league’s success, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah has opened up on the speculation of a Two-Phase IPL and answered about the dip in TV viewership.

Shah reckoned that conducting IPL in two phases has been under thought process and confirmed the discussion with other cricket boards and franchises. 

The Secretary also revealed that the proposals have been laid out for organizing the friendly matches in the overseas venues. 

“We are having discussions with various stakeholders. There are also multiple proposals for all the IPL franchises to play friendlies overseas. That idea is being seriously contemplated, but for that, we also need to speak to other boards as we would need to know the schedule of international players,” Shah said to PTI. 

The BCCI Secretary also intimated that the tournament is set to have a window of two and a half months to allow the larger participation of top international cricketers. 

“Let me inform you that from the next ICC FTP calendar, IPL will have an official two-and-a-half-month window so that all the top international cricketers can participate.”

He also talked about the dip in viewership in the 2022 edition and said widespread Covid-19 cases in the county put cricket at the centre stage of the public’s entertainment in homes (during the 2020 and 2021 seasons).  

“I don’t agree that there has been a viewership dip. You have to factor in pre-COVID and post-COVID numbers. The 2020 and 2021 IPL viewership numbers skyrocketed because cricket was the only source of live sporting entertainment for the Indian public.

“Now, in 2022, the same public, after the return of a certain amount of normalcy, is venturing out. People are socializing, going out for dinners, and taking vacations which they didn’t do in the last two years. Also, when you calculate viewership, this year, during evening games, you would have hundreds watching it on TV while sitting in a pub or a restaurant,” Shah stated.

However, according to BARC India, the TV Rating score in IPL 2022 was 2.52 in the first eight matches compared to a TVR of 3.75 in the last edition. Overall, the first week witnessed a total reach of 229.06 million to 267.7 million vis-a-vis 2021. Meanwhile, in 2019 (Pre-Covid), the overall reach was 268 million, with ratings at 3.85 TVR.