The subscriber count made JioHotstar one of the largest OTT platforms in the world.
JioHotstar, the newly-combined over-the-top (OTT) platform born out of the merger of Disney+Hotstar and JioCinema, surpassed a subscriber count of 200 million on Friday, April 11, 2025, majorly driven by the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League.
The subscriber count made JioHotstar one of the largest OTT platforms in the world, according to a source in the know.
The OTT platform has become the largest in India by subscriber base.
JioHotstar had 50 million subscribers at launch on February 14. It crossed 100 million subscribers days after the IPL started on March 22, the source added.
While the company did not comment on its OTT subscriber base, Sanjog Gupta, CEO, sports at JioStar told Business Standard in an interview: "In linear TV, we have added 2 million homes.
"The pay TV ecosystem has grown by 2 million homes in the past three weeks on the back of IPL."
The aforementioned source added that JioHotstar's digital reach (mobile and connected TV) had 8 billion live views for the first 24 matches, a 30 per cent growth in live digital reach and watch-time from IPL 2024.
On engaging viewership, Gupta said, "There are deeply engaged viewers. "They are devoting their attention so every match tends to, on an average, have between 60 to 100 minutes of engagement."
"And they also happen to be watching the content with both -- propensity to receive messages because they are deeply involved, and also the environment of that message is brand safe."
Gupta noted that the company has seen a lot of international advertiser interest for IPL.
Earlier, these international advertisers were usually associated with the JioStar Network for international cricket matches (ICC events).
"Due to the growing global recognition of IPL as a marquee cricket tournament, we're seeing a lot of interest around the world from advertisers who want to be part of the IPL.
"It's delivering on advertising revenues and subscriptions," Gupta added.
IPL offers unmatched visibility at scale with India being one of the top five global source markets for airlines, a high-spending outbound tourism segment, and a significant base of non-resident Indian real estate investors, particularly in the United Arab Emirates, Gupta added.
"They (international advertisers) have dabbled in the IPL (earlier) but it has not been at this scale.
"The fact that we have five airline partners which include Turkish Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates goes to show how strongly the international aviation sector sees the IPL as a property which can help deliver their brand objectives," he explained.
The company has also seen an influx of other global brands such as DP World, Disney Cruise Line, Aramco, and Saudi Tourism for this season of the IPL.
Overall, IPL 2025 has onboarded 32 sponsors, including Campa, Samsung, and Birla Opus.
Apart from the IPL, Gupta said that women's cricket scaled to record levels in the past four years in viewership, from the Women's T20 World Cup final between India and Australia to the Women's Premier League (WPL) this year.
"We have almost seen year-on-year growth, so much so that WPL this year was the most watched edition of WPL across TV and digital, and it continues to grow upwards of 20 per cent every year," he said.
The company saw 53 per cent growth in live viewers for WPL on linear TV to 167 million compared to last year's season.
The company, Gupta said, considers women's cricket as a separate sports segment because it requires a certain level of investment and attention.
"We want to invest significantly over the next two years to grow women's cricket to unprecedented levels and continue on this growth trajectory.
"We have a big Women's World Cup coming up in October, which is the Diwali period where typically spending tends to be high, and we have significant ambitions for WPL going forward," Gupta noted.
Beyond cricket, other sports leagues like the Pro Kabaddi League and Premier League football have shown growth in viewership, with PKL being watched by more than 200 million viewers.
"We also want, over the next 2 years, to build out a calendar of kabaddi events beyond Pro Kabaddi. That's a sport which clearly has the potential to grow to the next level, both in terms of viewership and monetisation," Gupta said.
Meanwhile, Premier League football touched highest-ever advertising revenues and highest-ever viewership this season.
"Our ambition is to grow it over the next three years and scale it to new heights. Also, last year's Wimbledon was the most watched edition of Wimbledon ever. But these are all in terms of scale."
"They are not at the same level as either the women's cricket portfolio we have or kabaddi."
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
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