Sports channels in India witnessed a rise of 21% in viewership over the last week despite there being no live action due to the coronavirus shutdown, all thanks to the decision to air reruns, according to a ratings report released on Friday.
Broadcasters are relying on old footage of matches such as India vs Pakistan as well as WWE Blockbusters to fill in the slots left blank due to an indefinite halt to sporting action all over the world.
According to a report by TV viewership monitoring agency BARC India and Nielsen, the 2011 World Cup match between India and Pakistan that was aired on Star network match registered 87% growth in viewership minutes, as per exchange4media.com.
The launch of WWE Blockbusters and the World Cup final between Sri Lanka and India saw 23%, 52% and 9% growth in viewing minutes respectively on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Among the channels, Star Sports First (which is free to air) continued to be on the top spot followed by Star Sports 1 Hindi and Sony Ten 1 rounding up the top three.
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