The average viewership ratings of the World Cup final on Saturday between now champions Australia and Sri Lanka doubled from those of the Super Eight and semi-final matches but remained lower than any of the India matches at the start of the World Cup in March.
In the hope of seeing Sri Lanka win, the combined average viewership rating for the first innings of the final was 5.53 (between 9:30 pm and 12:45 am) on Set Max, SAB TV and Doordarshan.
Overall, the average rating for the final was 4.68 that peaked to 7.38 during the last 15 overs of the first innings said aMap, an agency that monitors TV viewership.
This was double the average ratings of the two semi-final matches between Australia-South Africa (2.3) and New Zealand-Sri Lanka (2.7).
Ratings had witnessed a sharp fall soon after the exit of Indian team from the World Cup in March.
The three India matches in the World Cup delivered average ratings of 6.94, 6.79 and 8.53 on Set Max, SAB TV and Doordarshan combined. This remained higher than any other match, including the final on Saturday.
According to aMap, the average rating of 8.53 for the India-Sri Lanka match on March 23 (on DD-SAB-Set Max) fell to an all time low of 1.9 in the super eight match between South Africa and England on April 17.
Its average ratings peaked to 2.14, the highest since the exit of Indian team. Standalone, the ratings for Set Max had nose-dived to an average of 0.60 since India's debacle.
