India’s cricket home season records highest TV viewership

New Delhi, April 12: The Indian cricket team's recently concluded home season of 13 Tests recorded one of the highest television viewership, the official broadcasters claimed on Wednesday.

According to official broadcasters Star Sports, the 13 Tests — which comprised home series against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia — recorded a total of 3.1 billion gross impressions.

Of this, the four-match India-Australia Test series was the highest rated series with more than 174 million viewers.

The four-match Test series delivered a total of 1.1 billion gross impressions with the third Test match alone recording 383 million. 

Notably, the viewership increased on a series-to-series basis, as India continued its dominance in Test cricket recording 10 wins in 13 tests. 

Meanwhile, the three-match India-England ODI series was the highest rated bilateral ODI series in the last five years. Further, the viewership for both the ODI as well as the T20 format continued to grow at a per match level.

India's next challenge is to defend the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy in June. 

Defending champions India begin their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on June 4. It will be Virat Kohli's first major ICC tournament as captain of the Indian team.