The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has released its latest ratings data for Week 47, highlighted by the opening day of this year’s Pro Kabaddi League Season 9, which recorded a staggering 46 million viewers and 1.41 billion minutes consumed. This compares to 9.7 million viewers and 480 million minutes consumed on the opening day of the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. This is remarkably high compared to the opening days of prominent global sporting events.
These numbers raise some intriguing subjects for sports seeing in India. The current numbers attest to the astronomical development of kabaddi throughout the years, which up until recently was thought about a rural sporting activity. With India winning medals in Kabaddi at the Asian Games and the launch of PKL in 2014, the sport has gone into the residences of both rural and city populaces.
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PKL has brought the rise of Kabaddi
Breakthroughs in production and also broadcasting have been among the columns of kabaddi’s rise, with vivid floor coverings as well as amazing lights adding to the in-arena and also television viewing experience. With the sport being broadcast in local languages such as Tamil, Telugu and also Kannada, Kabaddi has become an extensively followed sport across India as well as has actually produced heroes out of its professional athletes.
The sports program data suggests that PKL will lead the way for the regional sports market, which consequently will pose a difficulty to worldwide sporting activities events in terms of viewership.
PKL ratings for 2023 are already around 8% higher than the previous period. Looking ahead, local sports will remain to be solid, giving global events stiff competition in regards to viewership in numerous regions. Such as the United States and also Australia, and also India is no exemption.
PKL is the 2nd biggest sport in India. In terms of numbers, cricket is the greatest sporting activity in India, and also in regards to cricket’s influence, PKL is doing very well. For example, the 2021 Men’s T20 World Cup had 320 million visitors, while the PKL had 250 million viewers.
Pro Kabaddi League vs FIFA World Cup
The largest difference between the 2 is that FIFA does it as soon as every four years, while PKL is an annual occasion. It’s almost a niche event that already has its own fan base, unlike soccer, which comes around once every four years. It simply reveals that PKL has actually transformed into a stable event that fans look ahead to every year.
When a worldwide event like FIFA is taking location, much more rankings information from BARC reveals that PKL can prosper in the rankings also. The rankings report from BARC shows that the opening day of PKL was enjoyed by 46 million visitors, while figures for the 2022 FIFA World Cup reveal that its first 6 days were enjoyed by 31 million viewers. The numbers reveal that the PKL’s first 19 matches completed 8.15 billion mins, compared to 6.3 billion mins for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The Future of the Pro Kabaddi League
PKL is a mature format that takes place yearly and also it has a stable follower base. Regardless of initial doubts concerning its creation, it has had the ability to become one of the biggest sporting activities leagues in India thanks to Mashal Sports, started by Charu Sharma and Anand Mahindra, which partnered with Disney Star back in 2014. Nonetheless, the main competitors for PKL is not global sports, but cricket as well as just how they compete with it, which will be the benchmark.
Kabaddi has motivated various other sports
The development of Kabaddi has been sensational. Back 7-8 years ago, when PKL was going to start, no one saw this coming. But Charu and Disney Star did a great job together and revolutionized the way kabaddi was played, consumed and looked. Kabaddi inspired various other sports to have their own leagues, like volleyball. All of these were inspired by kabaddi. If the content isn’t great, the ratings won’t last, and that’s down to the people behind the scenes who packaged the whole thing.