Dubai [UAE], March 21 (ANI): The ICC Men's Champions Trophy 2025 shattered significant viewership records in India with television ratings reaching an all-time high for a multi-country cricket event, surpassing those of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 by a substantial margin of 23 percent.
The live stream of the match accumulated an impressive total viewing duration of 137 billion minutes on Star Sports and 110 billion minutes on JioHotstar. These staggering figures stemmed from a thrilling finale between India and New Zealand held in Dubai on March 9th, which reached a pinnacle of simultaneous viewers at 122 million on television and 61 million via JioHotstar—a milestone for digital cricket audiences as stated in an ICC announcement.
The concluding match not only made history but also secured the second spot as the most-watched One Day International (ODI) telecast outside of ICC Cricket World Cup events. It attracted an audience of approximately 230 million people who watched the live broadcast, contributing to a staggering total of 53 billion minutes viewed across both television and digital platforms.
"The Champions Trophy staged a remarkable comeback after eight long years, with viewer engagement from India being particularly impressive, especially during the final match between India and New Zealand," stated ICC Chairman, Jay Shah, as reported by ICC.
The astounding viewer figures underscore the widespread popularity of cricket in India and demonstrate that presenting ICC tournaments in various languages could greatly enhance audience interaction. As he noted, the successful approach used for the Champions Trophy not only generated enthusiasm among current fans but also attracted new ones, all while delivering thrilling matches throughout the tournament.
CEO of Sports at Jio Star, Sanjog Gupta stated, “This achievement stems from the collective power of being the broadest and most extensively distributed multi-platform hub for sports, adopting a fan-centric narrative style with our ‘mega-casts,’ along with our advanced technical capabilities.”
The enthusiasm for the tournament surged due to an unprecedented team-focused marketing initiative that created various entry points for attracting a large audience. This strategy targeted different viewer groups with specific preferences across multiple devices. India’s undefeated championship run intensified fan engagement and led to a significant increase in viewership for the final match.
The much-anticipated match between fierce rivals India and Pakistan turned into one of the highest-viewed One Day Internationals in Indian history, accumulating more than 26 billion minutes of viewing time on traditional television networks, according to data provided by the Broadcast Audience Research Council.
The hit song surpassed the India-Pakistan match in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 held in Ahmedabad by achieving a remarkable 10.8 percent increase in TV ratings. The cricket event garnered 19.5 billion linear viewing minutes, whereas the Champions Trophy game attracted 26.5 billion viewing minutes.
The game, held at a full stadium in Dubai on February 23, drew an audience of 206 million viewers on traditional television, setting a new record. During this international ICC event, India maintained their supremacy over Pakistan, thanks largely to the outstanding performance of star player Virat Kohli, who secured a historic six-wicket victory for the ultimate winners.
The impressive viewer figures can be attributed primarily to rights holder JioStar’s efforts in providing extensive coverage through various channels broadcasting the event live in multiple languages—namely English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada—across households nationwide via Star Sports and Sports 18 channels, as stated in the announcement.
The competition was broadcasted live via digital platforms through an unprecedented total of 16 streams. These included nine different language options—English, Hindi, Marathi, Haryanvi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannadi—as well as four multiple camera angle views, an Indian Sign Language stream, and the exclusive Max View offering available exclusively on Jio Hotstar.
Audiences and fans remained highly involved in the high-pressure championship via engaging content before and throughout the event. (ANI)
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