MUMBAI: Revolutionizing the way, the world experiences VIVO IPL, Star India reimagined VIVO IPL in to a six-month fiesta instead of just a two-month tournament. Keeping fans at the heart of the experience, Star India used the confluence of technology, consumer insight, and experience in cricket coverage, to broaden the outreach and experience even further. The results of which is evident from the numbers BARC released last week.

One of the biggest success stories of this year’s VIVO IPL 2018 has been the broadcast in 8 languages (Malayalam and Marathi commentary added for finals). The initiative to invest heavily in a multi-lingual experience including Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Bengali paid rich dividends as the engagement in these markets saw a massive rise when compared to the 10th season of VIVO IPL.

The plans to telecast the tournament in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Bengali resulted in 80%, 36%, 23% and 30% growth in respective markets.

The tournament has registered the highest engagement ever in its 11th year – a testimony to the strength of the tournament and the broadcast presentation scoring with fans.

The decision to broadcast VIVO IPL in 6 languages, backing the tournament with strong LIVE as well as non-LIVE programming since January and the introduction of some of the best cricket voices in the world as IPL commentary debutants for #SelectDugout ensured fan were able to celebrate their favourite tournament in the manner they want. The introduction of dedicated language feeds and the revolutionary #SelectDugout has helped position the league as a serious cricket tournament, eventually bringing back interest from the core cricket fans.

In the run up to introduce these language feeds to the fans and the destinations for the fans to catch all the VIVO IPL action in their favourite language, Star Indian on-boarded Shiva Rajakumar in Karnataka market, NTR in AP & Telangana and Prosenjit in West Bengal market as the official ambassadors of VIVO IPL telecast in Kannada, Telugu and Bangla. A separate promo with MS Dhoni was shot to introduce Star Sports 1 Tamil as the official destination for all the fans to catch all the VIVO IPL action in Tamil helping create greater curiosity amongst the fans.