IPL season II fails to live up to hype

New Delhi: The much-hyped Indian Premier League season II is struggling to attract eyeballs, with viewership tracking agencies reporting lesser numbers this year as it tries to overcome rain-curtailed and low scoring matches, over and above the competition from elections.

According to viewership research agency aMap, the first match of IPL II managed only 3.6 per cent ratings against 4.3 per cent last year. However, it reported better viewership on the second day at 3.9 per cent and 3.5 per cent as against 2.9 and 3.4 last year.

Similarly, according to another viewership rating agency TAM, the TRP for the two matches on the first day of IPL II was at 5.55 per cent and 5.54 per cent, as against 8.21 per cent last year (only one match was played on day one of IPL 2008).

The Indian Premier League started on foreign soil with an explosion of entertainment and two cricket upsets at Newlands Saturday. © AFP

"There could be two-three factors why the rating has gone down. There are lots of other activities like the general election happening besides the IPL. This to an extent distracts the audience. Apart from that, there was novelty value of the first season," aMap CEO Amit Verma said.

A TAM official, however, said it is too early to say why the rating has gone down.

"There could be various reasons. It could be because it was held outside (India)," he said, adding that may be people were not too excited as it was the second edition.

Besides, industry experts pointed out that rain and low scoring matches have also played spoilsport this year in attracting viewers, despite its expanding reach.

However, according to aMap, the net reach of the first match expanded 12.6 per cent to around 68.27 lakh viewers this season as against 55.62 lakh last year, while that of the second match expanded to 81.68 lakh viewers compared to 46.48 lakh.

PTI