In terms of viewership, the T20 International series decider between India and South Africa has smashed all records in the Indian television sports genre. The match was played on the 24th of February which saw the Men in Blue outplaying the Proteas and lift the trophy despite a late barrage from the Proteas. The bowlers handled the pressure pretty well in Newlands to end a dominating limited-overs leg.

As per data released by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) for Week 9 (Feb 24-March 2), the Hindi language broadcast of the third and last T20I between hosts South Africa and men in blue on Sony Ten 3 has been the most watched sports event for the week with 10,547,000 viewers. The same content on national broadcaster’s DD Sports garnered over 9,363,000 viewers to be in the third position for the week.

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The English language broadcast of the series-decides clinched the second spot with 10,078,000 viewers. These numbers clearly show that Sony has taken huge steps on the ladder in terms of viewerships. Despite the fact that they have lost 4 crore viewers from the previous week, Sony has managed to stay on top.

This clearly shows that series deciders and nail bitters attract more audiences which directly benefit the broadcasters. A one-sided series is neither enjoyed by the fans nor recognized by the broadcasters. Followers of the game require hard-fought matches and nail-biting finishes.

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Star Sports had a weak show during this duration. Despite the fact that it Star Sports First managed to stay in the third position with 95,311,000 viewers and Star Sports 1 at number five with 30,856,000 viewers.

However, in the coming weeks, the two giants are without any cricket as the Nidahas Trophy between Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh will be broadcasted in DSports. DSports is an Indian television channel launched by Discovery communications India that has a rich inventory of more than 4000 hours of live content each passing year.