Star And BCCI Pull Out All Stops To Make The VIVO IPL 2018 Retention Event – An Unprecedented Success.

The VIVO IPL 2018 Retention event, broadcast for the first time in its 10-year history, had cricket lovers riveted across television sets and mobile devices and set social media abuzz with mentions and conversations that came close to rivalling those of full-fledged T20 India matches.

Star India’s presentation of the VIVO IPL Retention event was viewed by a massive, never-before audience of 8.1 million across both TV & digital. As per BARC data (Source : BARC 2+ U+R) 4.1 million TV viewers watched the event across the Star Sports Network from 7-8 p.m. on 4th January and as Star reported 4 million watched the event on Hotstar.

On social media, the event dominated conversations across platforms with 35k mentions making the VIVO IPL Retention day comparable to the chatter during a T20 match. It was trending #1 in India on Twitter in no time at all.

o From the hitherto two-month series, Star will grow the VIVO IPL into a 5-month extravaganza of viewing delight of cricketing action and glorious entertainment, and the IPL Retention was just the first beginning of the great things to come.

o Star will use its technology prowess to power unique and first-of-their-kind viewing experiences by enabling first-time-live-on-digital, check-ins and live scorecards on handhelds for truly immersive engagement of consumers.

o The Star network will make the VIVO IPL resonate even more closely with cricket lovers across major regional markets in the country. Star will make it a deeply local experience by adding four more languages - Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali -- which will allow cricket lovers in various regional markets to enjoy their favorite passion sport in their first language.

o On Star, the VIVO IPL 2018, to be aired in as many as 6 languages on 10 star sports channels and Hotstar will reach its biggest audience ever.

Hotstar is India’s largest premium streaming platform with more than 100,000 hours of drama and movies in 9 languages, and coverage of every major global sporting event. Launched in early 2015, it is one of India’s most downloaded apps and has attracted more than 300 million followers on the back of a highly evolved video streaming technology and high attention to quality of experience across devices and platforms.

The Hotstar Premium service showcases the best line up of TV shows, movies and sports from around the world, including Emmy Award winning shows like Game of Thrones, Veep and Silicon Valley, and live sporting tournaments including Premier League and F1 all at a monthly subscription fee of Rs. 199. Hotstar has appropriated top spots on the Google Play Store as well as the Apple App Store, named among the most popular apps of 2017 on both platforms.

Mumbai, 15th January 2018