The IPL Streaming War
IPL, the biggest cricket league in the world starts today. 10 teams, led by some of the biggest names in cricket like M S Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will compete against each other to win the league. But, the biggest IPL battle is not happening inside the cricket stadiums.
It is happening in the board rooms between 2 companies of similar markets $180 and $170 billion. And both companies are using all the tactics and moves to win this battle.
Last year, Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 won the digital media rights of IPL. Mukesh Ambani delivered a yorker when JioCinema decided to stream IPL for free. This move shocked Star India, the company which has the TV broadcasting rights of IPL.
Jio Cinema launched an ad campaign for IPL called Digital India ka Digital IPL. Jio has hired M S Dhoni as the face of the campaign. Star India on the other hand launched a campaign called IPL is better on TV will Virat Kohli. This ad campaign is a direct answer to Jio’s ad. Now it seems, the 2 biggest names of cricket in India, Dhoni and Kohli are face to face for the Jio Star India rivalry.
While Jio Cinemas’ free IPL streaming is a lucrative offer. But according to data, 83% of people like to watch big sports events like IPL on TV. This is not good news for Mukesh Ambani. But Star India will definitely love it.
To make its position even stronger, Star India has launched 2 new channels, Star Sports Tamil and Star Sports Telugu recently. With these 2 channels, Star India will broadcast IPL on 22 channels with more than 100 commentators in all major Indian languages.
Reliance is not stoping at ads to counter Star India. Now, it is trying a different tactic. Reliance owns the 2 biggest cable operators in India, DEN networks and Hathway. DEN and Hathway have removed Star Sports from its base pack of channels. This move is aimed at hitting Star Sports where it hurts.
But, the rivalry of the 2 biggest companies in the world on IPL will help the BCCI and IPL. Exports believe the viewership of IPL will cross the 550 million mark this year. This will make IPL the most-watched sports event on the planet.
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