During opening week 170 million Indian TV viewers tuned in to ISL

Mumbai: The first edition of Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) exploded into life and opened a new chapter for Indian football, sizzling across the television screens of 170 million Indian viewers on the opening week alone making it a milestone in the history of Indian sport. [caption id=“attachment_1771399” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of ISL logo. PR[/caption] This is the biggest phenomenon to hit the world of football in India. About 75 million people witnessed the birth of a footballing nation in day one and 170 million in week one. This is 12 times FIFA World Cup 2014 opening day and double of opening week reach for FIFA World Cup 2014 in India. The weekly reach is over 20-30X of the other football leagues viewership in India.  These are aggregated reach numbers across 8 channels (Star Sports 2 (English), Star Sports 3 (Hindi), Star Sports HD 2 (English), Star Gold (Hindi), Star Utsav (Hindi), Asianet Movies (Malayalam), Jalsha Movies (Bengali) and Suvarna Plus (Kannada). (Tam Panel CS4+; Extrapolated to all TV viewing universe). The viewership numbers shot through the roof not only on television, but also online on www.starsports.com.The website recorded ~800,000 visits each for the first two days of the tournament which is 80% of the average IPL viewership on starsports.com. No other non-cricketing event has seen such digital traction in India. The number of visitors to the site continued to grow as the League gained momentum and recorded 5 million visits over the opening week. Hero Indian Super League has taken digital media by storm with 2.5 billion potential impressions on digital so far. Within 24 hours of the grand kick off, the league dominated Twitter trends in India with a perfect score of 10 out 10 topics on web and 15 out of 17 topics on mobile as the country reveled in the birth of a footballing nation. On Facebook the league trended at number 1 in India with #IndianSuperLeague. Mrs. Nita Ambani, Founding Chairperson, Football Sports Development said, “I am absolutely delighted by the response the Hero Indian Super League has received so far. Right from the outset, Hero Indian Super League has been geared towards one overarching objective— to develop football across the country in a systematic and holistic manner. The enthusiasm with which the Hero Indian Super league has been greeted, gives us the perfect platform from which to drive grassroots development of football in India.” Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India said, “The early success of the Hero Indian Super League has been phenomenal as millions of fans have thronged to watch the action – on television, on digital and in-stadia. This is a historic moment in the era of sports in India as fans embrace the global game and see a quality of football never witnessed before being played in India. This is the first step in a long journey of making India a footballing nation and providing the platform for future champions to emerge. The endeavour has been to create a world class tournament to global production standards with the ubiquitous reach and platform of the Star network. We thank our fans for their belief and will redouble our efforts to make this a truly spectacular tournament!” The Hero Indian Super League is being beamed across a global audience, expanding the reach of the most exciting new football league across 5 continents and in 23 languages. In India the Hero Indian Super League is being telecast live on eight channels across five languages on Star Sports 2 (English), Star Sports 3 (Hindi), Star Sports HD 2 (English), Star Gold (Hindi), Star Utsav (Hindi), Asianet Movies (Malayalam), Jalsha Movies (Bengali) and Suvarna Plus (Kannada). It also available live on www.starsports.com The Hero Indian Super League will feature eight Franchises and will feature 61 matches over 70 days. The top 4 Franchises in the league will contest the semi-finals and the victorious semi-finalists will meet in the Grand Finale on December 20th. Tickets for all leagues matches of Hero Indian Super League can now be booked online at http://www.indiansuperleague.com Press Release.