ICC World Cup opening match records reach of 114 million viewership

Mumbai: The debut match of the most anticipated cricketing event of the year, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, between England and South Africa, has clocked a reach of 114 million on TV. The average viewership was 101 million impressions, as per BARC viewership data shared by Star India.

In terms of reach, World Cup has seen a 2.2 X jump compared to the opening match of the most recently played ICC tournament, the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, between England and Bangladesh.

BARC defines impressions as the number of individuals of a target audience, averaged across minutes. Reach is total number of individuals who viewed the event for at least one minute.


The viewership cannot be compared to the previous World Cup, when the ratings were monitored by TAM Media Research.

“We are thrilled with the record opening numbers and believe that the early numbers will only get bigger with the India games that follow,” said a Star India spokesperson.

The broadcast of the ICC CWC 2019 is available in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bangla and Malayalam.