The ongoing season of the Disney Star has broken all records, with a staggering 475 million viewers and 245 billion minutes of watch time, marking an 18% increase from the previous season. The official streaming partner, JioCinema, also saw a significant rise in viewership, recording over 12 billion views and 148 billion minutes of watch time after 29 matches, up 42% from the same period last season.
One of the highlights of the season was the Mumbai Indians (MI) versus Chennai Super Kings (CSK) match on 14 April, which saw the highest concurrent viewership for any league game in both current and past seasons, reaching 63 million viewers. The match drew a total of 174 million TV viewers and logged 15.4 billion minutes, captivating audiences with MS Dhoni’s remarkable performance and Rohit Sharma’s century.
Sponsors for this season include Tata Motors, PayZapp by HDFC Bank, SBI, Cred, and many more, who have signed up on the streaming platform. On TV, exclusive sponsors like Dream11, Asian Paints, Vimal, and others have also shown their support.
Despite the success of the season, ad rates have remained constant, with companies holding back on ad spends due to the upcoming general elections and the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup scheduled for June in the US. The decision to split rights into digital and TV packages for the 2023-27 cycle may have contributed to the stagnant growth in advertising expenditure.