Quote:
After learning that the 10 most highly viewed Internet streams on its Internet-only network ESPN3, were of cricket matches, regularly beating out college football and basketball, executives considered putting it on TV. On March 30, 100,000 viewers tuned into the ESPN3 stream of an India-Australia match at one time, which is more than an average audience, the network said.
While it might take some educating to make U.S. viewers more familiar with wickets and hitting a sixer, ESPN said the average U.S. cricket fan is young, highly educated and has a median household income of $75,000, which should appeal to advertisers.
(...)
ESPN has been trying to woo Madison Avenue by hosting events such as a viewing party for the India-Pakistan match at Hearst Tower in Manhattan attended by ESPN president John Skipper. But it still faces an uphill battle with advertisers like Hyundai, which said it has to do more research before investing.
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You know it's on, when they start doing research and generalizing the audiences. This means business. Hopefully millions tune in this Sunday.
As unhappy as I'm about WI not making it, US missing out on watching Gayleshow and yet another SL-IND match-up, I hope it's a close, nail-bitting, intense game.