Most Fan Following IPL Team: Chennai Super Kings Are Fans' Favourite Yet Again!

Bengaluru, April 13: As per findings from media consulting firm Ormax Media, defending Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are India's biggest sports franchise.

As per a media release, the findings are the outcome of a consumer research conducted over the six-month period from July to December, 2021.

The research report, titled We The Sports Fans of India, looks at the Indian sporting landscape in detail and is based on a sample size of 12,000 people across urban and rural India.

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The report pegs India's sports fan base at 136.3 million, or 13.63 crore, people. A fan has been defined as someone who watched live sports on TV or OTT platform in the last month for at least 30 minutes as an active viewer.

"CSK emerges as the biggest sports franchise in India. It's the most popular IPL team in India, with 40.9 million fans. The report defines a loyal fan as someone feels emotionally connected with team and its results, and engages in online or off-line conversations around the team and its players," the report added.

In the section on viewing behaviour, the report looks at the TV vs digital consumption of sports. While 44 per cent of the Indian sports fans watch live sports only on TV, a sizeable 36 per cent are using both traditional and digital media to watch live sports, while the remaining 20 per cenrt are watching on digital.

Speaking about the report, Ormax Media CEO & Founder Shailesh Kapoor said, "Viewership numbers, especially from television, aren't accurate representation of the fanbase of any sport, as India is predominantly a single-TV nation where a lot of sports viewing is passive in nature.

"Through this report, we aim to fill in the need gap for reliable data on the size and the profile of the real sports fans, who're actively watching and engaged with the sport. The report can provide useful material to sports leagues, teams and broadcasters for their brand and communication strategy initiatives," Kapoor added.

In an insightful section titled Active Sports Players in India, the report estimates that 317.8 million Indians are playing at least one outdoor sport actively in their life currently.

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And on the field, CSK are back to wooing the fans after registering their first win of the 15th edition of the cash-rich global franchise-based T20 league sanctioned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as they beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Match 22 of IPL 2022.

Robin Uthappa and Shivam Dube were the stars of the show at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai Stadium on Tuesday (April 12) night for the four-time IPL champions CSK, who posted a healthy 216 for four from their 20 overs, a stiff starget which RCB never looked like chasing though they put up a brave front.

RCB had come out on top in their previous three games, but their chances of extending that run looked slim by the fifth over, when Virat Kohli (1) followed skipper Faf du Plessis (8) back to the dressing room as they were eventually restricted to 133 for nine.

The BCCI-sanctioned IPL 2022 which has 74 matches spread over a span of 65 days ends on May 29.