IPL 2023: Star Sports and JioCinema engage in off-field battle to garner eyeballs

The Indian Premier League season 16 has got underway in an emphatic fashion as Gujarat Titans began their title defence in style by beating Chennai Super Kings by five wickets in the opening encounter at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The ongoing IPL season is expected to be even bigger as the tournament will be played in the ‘home and away format’ for the first time since 2019.

To add to the excitement of the fans, the build-up to the IPL season 16 has been incredible as JioCinema and Star Sports have been in a war to get the maximum number of people on their respective platforms to watch the T20 extravaganza. The television rights of the IPL are with Star Sports while the streaming rights are with JioCinema.

As a result, both companies have roped in several big stars from the cricketing fraternity to promote their platforms. While JioCinema roped in MS Dhoni, Suryakumar Yadav and Sachin Tendulkar, Star Sports have Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja.

Both companies have even introduced some innovations to enhance the experience for fans while watching matches. While JioCinema has launched new camera angles to give fans a 360-degree view of the ground in 4K quality, Star Sports is offering an interesting feature that allows fans to watch real-time highlights, key moments of the game and important stats with just a press of a button on the TV.

In one of the advertisements of JioCinema, a person can be seen watching IPL on television when a girl walks into his shop and tells him about the incredible features he’s missing out on by choosing to watch IPL on TV.

She explains to him the different camera angles the JioCinema app offers with the help of MS Dhoni and Suryakumar Yadav. The fan falls in love with the exciting features and decides to watch the game on the streaming platform.

On the other hand, in an advertisement for Star Sports Virat Kohli promotes watching matches with their loved ones on television and create a stadium-like atmosphere at their homes. Viewers can watch IPL in nine languages on Star Sports while JioCinema offers commentary in 12 languages on their live stream.

IPL: Second-most valued sporting league in the world

The fans are loving the off-field war between the two companies to get maximum eyeballs on their respective platforms. In the media rights auction held for the IPL in 2022, Star Sports bagged the TV rights for the T20 extravaganza for a whopping INR 23,575 crore for five seasons. 

The parent company of JioCinema, Viacom18, won the digital rights for INR 20,500 crore. The BCCI in total sold the IPL media rights for a whopping INR 48,390 crore for a five-year period, making it the second most valued sporting league in the world. After the record-breaking auction, IPL is only second to the National Football League of the USA in terms of per-match value.