How JioHotstar made the Indian Premier League a must-buy for global advertisers
Illustration by Reagan Hicks / Shutterstock / The Current
On a balmy June night in Ahmedabad, India, fireworks lit the sky as Royal Challengers Bengaluru lifted their first Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy. For cricket fans, IPL 2025 was a season that culminated in this historic win. For brands, it was the season that rewrote the league’s advertising playbook.
Eighteen years since its launch, the IPL has become more than a cricket tournament — it is now one of India’s biggest cultural events. Over a 10-week run, the 2025 season clocked 1.19 billion viewers across TV and digital, breaking previous records and cementing IPL’s position as one of the largest sporting events globally.
But reach alone wasn’t what set IPL 2025 apart from previous seasons. For the first time, thanks to the recent partnership between Nielsen and Indian streaming platform JioHotstar — which holds the IPL streaming rights — that audience scale was coupled with real-time, third‑party verified metrics.
“One big takeaway from this IPL season is that campaigns perform best when they are spread across platforms, whether it’s linear TV, CTV, or mobile,” Ishan Chatterjee, CEO of JioStar Sports, tells The Current. “When brands are visible in more than one place and stay visible over a longer period, we have seen clear lifts in awareness and even purchase intent.”
Digital dominates viewership and advertisers follow
This year’s season followed a landmark merger between Disney Star and Reliance’s Viacom18, which formed JioStar — the parent company of JioHotstar. Consolidating linear and digital IPL rights under one roof, it gave IPL advertisers access to an integrated platform.
“Another key advantage is the ability to target audiences more precisely on digital,” Chatterjee adds. “That opens opportunities to tailor their creatives for different audience groups, which really helps drive home the message.”
Digital screens certainly dominated this season. A JioStar–Media Partners Asia report showed streaming outpaced linear TV, with 652 million viewers online compared to 537 million on linear.
CTV saw rapid growth, attracting a record 235 million IPL viewers — a 44% jump year on year.
“CTV brings back the communal, living room style viewing that traditional TV offered, but with the targeting power of digital,” Chatterjee says.
"We are witnessing significant year-on-year growth in IPL viewership on CTV, especially in metros and high-income urban households where smart TV penetration is accelerating.”
Advertisers took note. According to Chatterjee, CTV ad inventory sold out across the season, with global advertiser demand at an all‑time high. Indeed, IPL 2025 drew over 425 advertisers, a 27% jump from last year.
But IPL is still “a deeply mobile-first experience,” Comscore Sales Director Vivek Jaiswal says. According to Comscore data, nearly 90% of IPL streaming consumption occured via mobile, with 62% of that audience falling within the 18 to 34 age range.
“That makes IPL streaming particularly attractive for digital-first brands — think D2C players, food delivery apps, fintech platforms, and fantasy sports leagues — where performance and engagement are key,” Jaiswal adds.
The IPL, and brands, speak multiple languages
India’s evolution into a premium consumer market driven by rising affluence in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities has made it an attractive destination for international advertisers, Chatterjee says, from Emirates and Rolex to Turkish Airlines and Agoda.
Another major draw for brands both at home and abroad was the ability to speak to fans in their own language. JioHotstar streamed IPL matches in multiple languages, with streams in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali and Haryanvi all seeing a surge in growth compared to last year, according to Chatterjee.
“This democratization of access means advertisers can now tailor their messages more precisely, reaching audiences with specific language preferences, interests or consumption behaviors,” he says.
Jaiswal also highlights the ability to target audiences by region and language as a major advantage for brands: “With commentary and content available in multiple Indian languages, it unlocks strong geolinguistic opportunities, particularly valuable for regional brands looking to go hyperlocal at scale.”
Playing smarter, not just bigger
The IPL has always been big. In 2025, it became smart.
Nielsen’s real‑time monitoring meant brands could see on-target reach, impressions, clicks and even spikes in search traffic and app downloads as the season unfolded.
“Brands that advertised on the JioStar Network this IPL registered nearly double the uplift across key metrics such as ad awareness, brand association, favorability and purchase intent compared to traditional benchmarks,” Chatterjee says.
In the global hierarchy of sports events, the IPL now sits in a rare position — able to deliver the sustained momentum of a monthslong tournament like the English Premier League (EPL) and the concentrated one-day impact of the Super Bowl.
“For brands focused on India — especially those looking for scale, volume and repeated touchpoints — the IPL is unmatched,” Jaiswal says. “It’s not just a sporting event, it’s a nationwide cultural wave that drives deep, sustained interaction.”