ISLAMABAD – HBL PSL is Pakistan’s favorite cricket event when cricket fansturn to their nearest screen to keep up with the action, and these daysthat means the one in their pocket—their mobile phone.
This year, with matches being live-streamed on YouTube on the newofficial CricketGateway PK channellink, it’s eveneasier to stay up to speed on every wicket. With over 10 million views (allplatforms combined) in just 5 matches, HBL PSL season 4 has been settingnew livestream record, with Pakistan’s favorite rivalry (Karachi Kings vs.Lahore Qalandars) grossing 1.48 million views in one match alone, peakingat over 200,000 concurrent viewers on YouTube alone.
All this engaged viewership represents a great opportunity for brands toshare relevant messages and, like last year, Pepsi, ABL, UL, RB, and morethan 20 other brands ran ads. First-time brands for this year include Jazz,Telenor, P&G, Telenor Bank, and the DWP group.
“With millions of cricket fans tuning in on their mobile devices and SmartTVs, the live stream on YouTube is an ideal opportunity for brands to reacha highly engaged audience. The future of spectator sports and onlineadvertising in Pakistan are very closely intertwined and brands should notmiss out,” said Farhan Qureshi – Head of South Asia Markets, Google AsiaPacific.
Other livestream partners include Tapmad.com, Goonj.pk, Crick Wick, Jazz TVand JazzTube. With ad insertions unified at the country level, ads aredelivered simultaneously at each authorized location, with streams beingscanned for copyrighted content and over 4500 pirated beams banned withinthe first 5 matches.
On the nationwide success of HBLPSL Season 4 Internet livestream,AhsenIdris, CEO Blitz Advertising, commented:
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“The HBLPSL is Pakistan’s crown Jewel of Sports Entertainment. Combining itwith the engaged audience of YouTube and our valued beam partners, we arecommitted towards ensuring that there isn’t a single internet household inPakistan that will not have access to this content.
When you put Pakistan’s best content and its biggest viewership platformtogether on one plate, our valued advertisers get nothing less than thebest. I wouldn’t be surprised if this product matures into a 100 millionviewership product within consecutive seasons.”
We would once again like to thank the PCB, our JV partners TransGroup, ITWand Techfront, YouTube, our stream partners, and most importantly – ourvalued clients, whose faith in brand Pakistan has helped make this successpossible, 4 years in a row.
Our strategy, as always, is to make Pakistan’s crown jewel an‘all-inclusive’ event, where all the premium brands of Pakistan cometogether and make their presence felt on the local AND international sportsentertainment landscape.”
