The much-awaited encounter between the two neighbours attained a record viewership of 20.02 points, unheard of in the Indian television space. Cricket fever has led to a 514% increase in the ratings for the sports genre over the average on the last four Wednesdays

The Indian cricket team, which is on the verge of winning the World Cup, has already created history for television viewership. The semi-final between India and Pakistan on Wednesday saw the ratings peak at 20.02, which no event, no match, no show, has achieved so far, according to Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd (aMap). aMap is an overnight TV audience measurement system that provides data on multiple dimensions like demographics, ownership and viewership.

"World Cup matches have seen high viewership numbers… be it India against England, or India against Australia. However, the India-Pakistan match surpassed all expectations, attracting ratings of 11.7 and getting peak ratings of 20.02 points. The madness associated with the India-Pak match was in true form and with 67.3 million viewers watching the match on TV, it was the grandest of all events," said Jiniti Shah, vice-president, aMap.

According to aMap, the time spent per viewer for the India-Australia match was 115 minutes, for the India-England game it was 99 minutes, and the involvement shot up to an electrifying 160 minutes per viewer for the titanic tie on Wednesday. It said the time spent for the sports genre shot up by 248%, which contributed to the high jump in gross rating points (GRPs).

Women in India, normally perceived to be not too keen to watch cricket matches, were glued to the TV sets throughout the matches. The female target group (TG) has shown a tremendous growth, especially cable and satellite (CS) housewives (working) showed an increase of 49% and CS housewives showed increase of 33% across all TGs, from 15+ years females that witnessed a 30% increase in viewership to CS 4+ years females viewership that increased by 31%, the audience measurement service provider said.

While sports channels witnessed robust viewership, general entertainment channels (GEC) saw viewership dip by 20% during the semi-final match on Wednesday. aMap said, "The match led to a 20% dip in GRPs of the GEC genre with a subsequent increase of 514% in the sports genre over the average of last four Wednesdays. The net reach for the sports genre increased by 80% over the average of last four Wednesdays."