JioCinema Sets New World Record With 32 Mn Viewers Tuning In For IPL Final

Reliance-backed streaming service JioCinema has created a new world record with the highest concurrent viewers to a live-streamed event. Over 32 Mn viewers tuned in to watch the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 final, featuring Chennai Super Kings versus Gujarat Titans on the platform.

The viewership peaked at 32 Mn concurrent viewers when Sai Sudharsan was batting at 96 during the IPL match. Further, the final overs of the second innings saw the concurrent viewership touching 25 Mn.

The previous viewership record on JioCinema is of 25 Mn, registered during Chennai Super Kings vs Gujarat Titans match on May 23.

JioCinema said in a statement last week that it clocked over 15,000 Mn video views in the first seven weeks of IPL.

To offer an immersive experience to viewers, JioCinema released a 360-degree viewing feature. It also offered unique language feeds including Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Marathi, and Gujarati and digital-only features including Multi-cam, 4K, Hype Mode.

Last year, Viacom18, which owns JioCinema, acquired the IPL digital streaming rights for a whopping INR 23,758 Cr for the 2023-2027 period. While its rival Disney Star, which had the digital rights for IPL before, used to stream the cricket tournament behind paywall, JioCinema decided to stream it for free to reach a larger audience.

JioCinema attracted 26 sponsors for IPL 2023. Gaming unicorn Dream11 joined as the co-presenting sponsor for digital streaming of IPL and JioMart, PhonePe and Tiago have joined as co-powered sponsors. Other new-age companies such as Rapido, Spotify and ecommerce player Amazon also were associated with JioCinema for the tournament.

After boosting the free tier with IPL, JioCinema is also pushing its premium service with licenced content as it entered into an exclusive content partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal recently.

It also plans to release as many as 100 movies and shows, produced at a cost of INR 2,000 Cr, over the next 18-24 months.

There is no doubt that JioCinema’s aggressive content strategy will increase competition in India’s OTT space and impact other players including Disney+Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Zee5 and SonyLIV.

According to a report by RBSA Advisors, India’s video OTT market is expected to reach a size of $12.5 Bn by 2030 from about $1.5 Bn in 2021 due to increasing internet and smartphone penetration.

Update: The headline of the story has been changed to correct the number.