Test Cricket Alive And Kicking: Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy Registers Record-breaking Viewership

India and England played a spectacular five-Test series in England, which was drawn 2-2 in the last session of the last Test. All the games went till the last day, and the series was tightly contested, with games even being decided by six runs.

The high-profile nature of the series, combined with the exhilarating cricket on display for more than a month, and the viewership numbers on streaming are record-breaking for the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy. More than 170 million viewers logged on to JioStar to watch the series that ran from June 20 to August 4, which is the most for any Test series on the platform. 

In fact, the fifth day of the fifth Test at the Oval had a peak concurrent viewership of 1.3 Crore, which is the most for a Test match that was streamed. The entire series gathered more than 65 billion watching minutes on the OTT platform, and as a result, it became a historic series for the broadcasters as well. 

“The extraordinary response to India’s tour of England reinforces Test cricket’s ability to produce compelling narratives in almost every session of every match. Reaching over 170 million viewers and setting new concurrency records is a testament not only to the thrilling cricket on display, but also to our commitment to delivering an immersive storytelling and viewing experience,” Siddharth Sharma, Head of Content – Sports, JioStar, said, as quoted by India Today. 

This series once again showed that a Test series involving the major nations still has the potential to be very profitable for the broadcasters. The challenge, though, remains taking cricket out of the big three axes and starting to rake in broadcasting numbers from other countries as well.