World Cup shatters audience records: ICC

From our correspondent

LONDON: The ongoing World Cup has set new TV and digital records to become one of the world’s most watched sporting events, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Saturday.

ICC’s digital and social platforms during the group stage, there have also been an unprecedented 2.6 billion video views. Meanwhile, the official tournament social channels have added 12 million new followers in the space of six weeks and attracted 386 million engagements, with fans.

The semi-final between India and New Zealand set a new world record by delivering the highest ever concurrent views on Hotstar with a peak of 25.3 million.

In the UK, the event has now reached a unique audience of 20 million people through Sky Sports’ live coverage and highlights on Channel 4. The semi-final between England and Australia became the third most watched match for the event on after England v India and India v Pakistan, attracting 465,000 new audience through live and highlights coverage.

Continuing the TV viewership records, England’s win over India at Edgbaston was the most watched cricket match within the United Kingdom across any format, since 2006.

In India, the India v Pakistan match delivered a rating of 14.8 across both Star and DD while the India v England match delivered 18 million peak concurrent views.