SUMMARY
The OTT streaming platform clocked 59 Cr views on the first day of the tournament, translating into 660 Cr minutes of watch time
As many as 32 startups have associated with the IPL this year, a steep 68% increase from last year’s 19
This year, new-age tech startups such as Dream11, CRED, Upstox, Rapido, among others, have signed multiple sponsorship deals with both JioCinema and Star India
More than 11.3 Cr viewers logged on to Reliance-backed streaming platform JioCinema on the first day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. This represented a 51% year-on-year increase over the maiden day of IPL 2023.
The OTT streaming platform also clocked 59 Cr views on Day 1 of the tournament, translating into 660 Cr minutes of watch time, it said in a statement.
“India has completed its transition to being a digital-first sports consuming nation and the opening game record numbers validate this. We are going to see benchmarks reset and records re-written throughout the course of this season,” said a Viacom18 spokesperson.
The streaming giant also said that as many as 12 brands, including Dream11, debuted their ad campaigns within the first six overs of the first match of IPL 2024. Kicked off amid much fanfare and a glitzy ceremony on Friday (March 22) evening, the broadcast on JioCinema will see 18 sponsors and more than 250 advertisers push their products.
IPL is a major Indian sporting tournament and witnesses brands across the board line up to advertise during the season. In the cricket-crazy nation, the matches of the league bring a lot of eyeballs for the advertisers and is one of the most viewed events globally too.
While established enterprises are known to have marked their presence since IPL’s inception, startups have also hopped on to bandwagon to leverage the cricket mania. Nearly 32 startups are taking part in IPL 2024, a steep 68% increase from last year’s 19.
While Dream11 is co-presenting the mega event on Start Sports, JioCinema has roped in startups like CRED, Upstox, and Rapido as associate sponsors. Not just this, new-age tech companies have also sponsored multiple teams, with the logos on many companies flashing on the jerseys of the players.
Earlier, Dream11 also gave a sneak peek into the heavy traffic that trickled on the gaming unicorn’s platform during the first match. It claimed to have onboarded 1.1 Mn new users on the first day of the tournament and saw 15.01 Mn concurrent users.
On the other hand, JioCinema appears well placed to cash in on the sporting event. Fresh off the announcement of its $8.5 Bn merger with competitor Disney+ Hotstar, the Reliance-owned OTT platform has been grabbing the streaming rights of sports tournaments in droves. Armed with deep pockets, it also signed back-to-back content deals with HBO and NBC to stream premium English content and to woo users away from its competitor.
At the heart of this is the burgeoning Indian OTT streaming space which is projected to grow to a market size of $5.8 Bn by 2029.
