77 million views for ISL in opening week | Goa News
Panaji: Early viewership numbers appear to back the Indian Super League’s decision to stream all 163 matches free on YouTube.The early numbers are encouraging for India’s top tier football league. The ISL started strong, recording 77.3 million YouTube views, across six games and 18 feeds. English led with 71.3 million, followed by Hindi at 4.2m.NorthEast United’s clash against Mohun Bagan Super Giant emerged as the most-viewed fixture, recording 19.3 million views. “The match also led viewership in the Hindi feed, highlighting the importance of multilingual content in reaching India’s diverse football audience,” ISL said in a statement on Thursday.Churchill Brothers’ much-awaited debut in the ISL also resulted in improved viewership. Their 2-1 opener against Mumbai City FC had the second-biggest audience at 16.5 million views.“It shows that Churchill Brothers are much loved and everyone was waiting for our ISL debut,” said CEO Valanka Alemao. “My heart is full of gratitude to everyone who stayed by our side through the struggle.” The Goan club returned to the top tier of Indian football after Tata Steel approved the transfer of its entire 100% stake in Jamshedpur Football and Sporting Private Limited (JFSPL), the company that owns Jamshedpur FC, to Churchill for a nominal consideration of ₹100.Kerala Blasters’ opening encounter against Inter Kashi generated 13.1 million views. Its English feed led every feed in engaged views (4.35 Mn), chat (403K) and peak concurrency (349K), and recorded the longest English view duration (7:35).The season opened on with Bengaluru FC taking on Sporting Club Delhi. The opening fixture generated 8.9 million views across the reported formats, with peak concurrent viewership on the English feed reaching 85,277 viewers.Beyond viewership, the opening week recorded 16.8 million engaged views, while 136,000 new subscribers joined the League’s YouTube channel, taking its subscriber base to 2.7 million. Fans also drove 1.6 million live interactions across the first five matches through chat messages and reactions.
