Daily Times

KARACHI: The Pakistan Super League (PSL) has undeniably been a gigantic success for brand Pakistan – both locally and internationally. No other sports event in Pakistan’s history has had a digital footprint as large as that of the PSL.

This year, media marketing rights holder Blitz Advertising in collaboration with Trans Media Group & ITW launched Pakistan’s first freemium DRM based exclusive live stream at www.cricketgateway.pk. With over 1 million viewership in just 3 days (and 1800+ unlicensed stream bans), its performance clearly highlights the love and passion of nation for this sport. With Internet penetration at 20% (40 million people), Pakistan whopped a total 12 million views and 3,477,446 unique users watching on live stream on digital (8.3% of entire Internet population).

PSL 2017 has set a very high viewership benchmark for any sports event to come. Not only in the metro cities of Pakistan, it was also watched throughout the country, towns and villages alike. From conventional media to digital, all forums showed their utmost interest in highlighting every aspect of the event.

From pre-hype to the event finale in Lahore, a lot of brands altered their media spends to maximise their exposure at Pakistan’s crown jewel. On the live stream alone, 15 brands like Haier, Oppo Mobile, Pepsi, Lays, Sensodyne, Cricket Junoonis, Nestle Fruita- Vitals, USAID, Shell, Tapal, Oye-Hoye, ABL, Hamdard and more participated via the industry’s first in-stream advertisement model.

With a complete inventory sell-out in less than 96 hours, the superstition of cricket being a ‘TV only’ event was put to rest irrevocably, both for advertisers and viewers alike.

The crowd pullers in the second season of PSL were most definitely Peshawar Zalmi, Quetta Gladiators and Karachi Kings, both in terms of support presence in the stadiums and with regards to the viewership stats on digital assets. Not feeling the need to mention the obvious grand viewership of the playoffs and the final (13m+ minutes per match), even the regular league matches for the top 2 teams ensured a huge digital audience with more than 10,276,136 average estimated minutes for Peshawar Zalmi vs Islamabad United (Feb 18), 11,276,1,36 mins for Peshawar Zalmi vs Lahore Qalandars and 13,416,356 mins for Karachi Kings vs Lahore Qalandars on Feb 25.

Another innovation launched by the PSL was the introduction of 360/VR video experience – first time ever in Pakistan, with direct in-stadium footage from the fans, players and celebrities alike, was available exclusively on PSL 2017 app. With technology partners Samsung and Blitz/Spark’s digital arm, PCB looks forward to utilising this technology to its fullest to promote Pakistan’s love for cricket, and bring the Pakistani audience the feel of international cricket from the comfort of their homes.