Audience has not left the IPL but has simply shifted to different platforms: Lalit Modi

New Delhi: The Indian Premier League (IPL) founder Lalit Modi believes the discussion around falling IPL television ratings is seriously flawed and thinks the tournament has grown into one of the world’s largest digital entertainment ecosystems, rather than just being a television product.

While discussing how people consume the Indian Premier League, the IPL founder argued that analysts are stuck in the past by only focusing on traditional television viewership.

“The mistake many analysts make is treating IPL like it’s still a pure television property. It is not. The IPL has turned into a multi-screen, multi-platform entertainment ecosystem,” Modi told IANS in an exclusive conversation.

“Measuring a digital-first global sports property only through television ratings is like measuring the internet through newspaper circulation.”

He stated that the audience has not left the IPL but has simply shifted to different platforms as sports consumption habits change around the world.

“The audience has not disappeared. The audience has migrated,” Modi explained, emphasizing that “the screen changed, the audience did not.”

Modi pointed out that much of the recent criticism about IPL viewership comes from selectively interpreting television data.

“The headlines shouting ‘IPL viewership decline’ are quoting one metric: Average Minute Audience on linear television. That is just one part of the ecosystem,” he said.

He argued that the larger changes in sports broadcasting worldwide are being overlooked, as audiences increasingly turn to OTT platforms, mobile devices, and connected televisions.

“Viewers are moving from broadcast TV to OTT. Families are splitting their viewing across devices. Young audiences prefer mobile and connected TV. Advertisers are looking for measurable engagement, not just TV ratings,” Modi said.

Emphasizing the scale of the tournament’s reach, Modi claimed that IPL’s cumulative audience across platforms during the 2026 season had already surpassed 1.06 billion viewers even before the playoffs.

“That is not a decline. That is an expansion,” he asserted.

Modi also highlighted that television can no longer serve as the only measure for sporting success.

“Linear TV was once the only screen. Now it’s just one screen among many,” he said, adding that connected TV concurrency had increased by 61 percent year-on-year while the watch time during the opening weekend had grown by 26 percent.

“The audience did not leave IPL. They upgraded their screens,” he remarked.

Making comparisons with other major sports leagues, Modi noted that the IPL is experiencing the same digital shift seen in leagues like the National Football League, National Basketball Association, Premier League, and Olympic Games.

“This is not unique to cricket. Traditional TV is fading while streaming grows, mobile attracts younger viewers, and connected TV becomes the main household screen,” he said.

However, Modi believes the IPL’s transition has been particularly pronounced because of India’s mobile-first digital ecosystem.

“No sporting league in the world—be it EPL, NBA, or NFL—has seen this kind of transition. Sure, our population plays a role, but that oversimplifies things. Availability doesn’t mean consumption—in the case of the IPL, it does,” he said.

Modi explained why advertisers are increasingly choosing digital platforms over traditional television.

“Television can tell you a household watched. Digital can tell you who watched, how long, on what device, whether they interacted, and if they made a purchase. That is the future of advertising,” he said.

He shared that 125 new brands had joined the IPL’s digital advertising ecosystem this season, while connected TV ad prices continued to rise.

“Watch time across all platforms is expected to surpass last year’s record levels,” Modi added.

According to Modi, the true measure of modern sports success lies not in single-screen television ratings but in “cumulative reach, total watch time, engagement depth, concurrency, advertiser demand, and cross-platform influence.”

By those standards, he believes the IPL remains unparalleled globally.

“Projected combined watch time for IPL 2026: 850–900 billion minutes. That is extraordinary,” he said.

Modi also urged for the swift creation of an accurate and standardized digital measurement system for Indian sports broadcasting, similar to BARC for television.

“It’s time we have a proper measurement system like BARC for digital viewership. It’s overdue. Insights and a detailed understanding of audience profiles and viewing habits are essential,” he said.

Summing up his view on the league’s growth, Modi said the IPL in 2026 is no longer just a cricket competition.

“It is a digital entertainment ecosystem, a mobile-first phenomenon, and one of the largest real-time engagement platforms in the world,” he said.

“The measurement model changed. The audience behavior changed. The scale did not shrink. It expanded. The IPL did not lose its audience. The audience simply changed screens. Measuring a digital-first global sports property only through television ratings is like measuring the internet through newspaper circulation.”

IANS