World Twenty20 sets broadcast, digital records

The International Cricket Council has reported on a number of broadcast and digital records for the 2016 World Twenty20 national team tournament, the first major event produced by its ICC TV division.

The tournament, hosted by India and won by the West Indies men’s and women’s teams, concluded at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on April 3. ICC TV produced coverage of 48 matches across seven stadia in India using 30 cameras at each venue.

In the host nation alone, the ICC said the India versus Pakistan group stage encounter on March 19 rated 17.3 across the network of pay-television broadcaster Star Sports and public-service broadcaster Doordarshan, the best rated Twenty20 match ever since the final of the 2007 World Twenty20, reaching 83 million people. The cumulative in-home viewership for the event in India was 730 million, an increase of 114 per cent over the previous edition.

In Pakistan, on pay-television broadcaster Ten Sports, India v Pakistan rated 14.5, a 100 per cent increase when compared to the same encounter in the 2014 tournament that took place in Bangladesh.

The ICC added that South African-based pay-television broadcaster SuperSport recorded ratings that increased by 32 per cent compared to the 2014 World Twenty20, while in the UK, England’s dramatic defeat against the West Indies in the men’s final saw a peak audience of 2.45 million – a record for any cricket match televised on pay-television broadcaster Sky Sports.

Across the official event website and app, the ICC’s YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram account and the regional and global live stories posted on Snapchat, there were more than 320 million video views – the highest mark ever for an ICC event.

ICC chief executive David Richardson said: “Our philosophy that the game is about the fans encouraged us to push digital media and broadcast boundaries at the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016 with some creative and engaging activations and innovations.

“And this enhancement, supplemented by the skills of the players and a highly competitive format, contributed enormously to the overall success of the tournament as we recorded unprecedented broadcast and digital figures.”