BARC shows 26% TV drop

IPL viewership is not collapsing. It’s moving. That’s the real story behind the BARC India and TAM Sports numbers showing a sharp drop in linear TV for the first half of IPL 2026. On television, the league is clearly softer than last year. But across TV, mobile, and connected TVs, the tournament is still getting bigger — which changes how you should read the slump in the first place. ### What actually fell? The first-half TV numbers did. BARC India and TAM Sports data showed IPL 2026 TV ratings down to 3.71 from 4.57 a year earlier — an 18.8% decline. Average TV viewership fell 26%, from 10.6 million to 7.84 million, and TV reach slipped 8.3% to 113.61 million. That is a real drop, not statistical noise. ### So are people watching less IPL? (msn.com) Basically, no — just less of it on old-school linear television. JioStar has been pushing a different set of numbers: cumulative reach across TV and digital has already crossed 1.06 billion screens this season, up 7% from last year, while average match reach rose 6% to 277 million across more than 20 feeds in 12 languages. The audience didn’t vanish. It spread out. ### Where did the audience go? A lot of it appears to have shifted to streaming and connected TV. JioStar’s mid-season pitch says connected TV was the fastest-growing screen this year, up 61%. That matters because CTV looks like television to the viewer — big screen, living room, shared watching — but it behaves like digital for targeting and measurement. In other words, some “lost TV” may just be TV that changed pipes. (fortuneindia.com) ### Why is connected TV such a big deal? Because it scrambles the old broadcast logic. For years, IPL value was easy to explain: huge mass audience, sold mostly through television ratings. But CTV lets platforms sell a premium sports audience with digital-style targeting on the largest screen in the house. That makes the bundle more attractive to advertisers even if the legacy TV rating weakens. JioStar had already lined up 27 sponsors for IPL 2026, which tells you brands still want in. (fortuneindia.com) ### Then why are people worried? Because TV ratings still anchor a lot of industry habit. Media buyers, broadcasters, and sponsors have spent years using linear TV as the cleanest shorthand for IPL health. So when that number drops nearly 19% and average TV audience drops 26%, it looks like a warning sign. Financial Express also said advertiser participation on linear TV fell 31%, which adds to the anxiety. (brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com) ### Is this just a measurement problem? Partly. BARC measures television. It does not, by itself, tell the full story of what happens when viewers split across broadcast, mobile apps, and connected TVs. That’s why Lalit Modi pushed back publicly and argued that single-platform readings now miss the point. The catch is that the market still lacks one universally accepted scoreboard that blends all those screens into a simple comparable currency. (financialexpress.com) ### What changes now? The rights story changes first. If IPL is becoming a true multi-platform property rather than a TV-first one, then the most important metric is no longer just linear ratings. It’s incremental reach across screens, plus how well platforms can prove low overlap and better targeting to advertisers. That was already part of JioStar’s pitch in other cricket events this year, and IPL 2026 makes that argument much easier to sell. (msn.com) ### Bottom line? The TV drop is real. But the bigger shift is structural — IPL is turning from a broadcast giant into a cross-screen giant. If that continues, the winners won’t just be the platforms with the best ratings. They’ll be the ones with the best measurement story. (msn.com) (economictimes.indiatimes.com)