This year's IPL 2025 will not offer free streaming, which is a huge shock for Indian cricket fans. According to a Reuters report, the cash-rich league, which will be live-streamed on JioHotstar, will switch to a hybrid subscription model, which means fans will not have the opportunity to watch the IPL for free. JioCinema acquired the rights in 2023 in a $3 billion deal, and the IPL has been live-streamed on its website and app for the previous two years.
However, Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema merged to create a new streaming service called "JioHotstar" as a result of Reliance and Walt Disney's merger. Following the completion of the merger on Friday, February 14, the new platform will serve as the home of the Indian Premier League for live streaming in the upcoming years.
How will IPL streaming happen now?
As previously said, JioHotstar will be utilizing a hybrid model in the future. This implies that before the subscription starts, customers will have the opportunity to see content for free. The user will need to sign up for a subscription plan once the free minutes have passed.
"Once a user develops affinity to the platform, start watching free, becomes loyal ... the subscription will kick in then," said one of the sources to Reuters.
For the mobile device, JioHotstar will provide a basic package for 149 rupees and an ad-free version for 499 rupees for a year. In addition, JioHotstar provides a minimum of Rs 299 every three months. The Super plan, which includes advertisements, costs 299 rupees for three months and 899 rupees annually. With no advertisements, the Premium plan costs 299 rupees a month, 499 rupees for three months, and 1,499 rupees for a year.
Brand Finance's managing director, Ajimon Francis, told Business Line that while the move would spark excitement among advertisers, he believes it will only have a segmented impact rather than a nationwide one.
“There will be questions and answers from both advertisers and broadcasters in terms of which segment is going to get hit more and how that will impact the ad rates. That discussion is going to happen over the next 2-3 weeks. So there is time till the third week of March for this to be sorted out. Still, I think it will be a segmented impact rather than an overall pan-India impact,” said Francis.
Madison Media & OOH Group CEO Vikram Sakhuja stated that he does not anticipate a decline in the IPL's audience.
"What JioStar is doing is allowing 4 hours/month of free viewing (of any content) and introducing a charge of ₹149 only after a viewer has crossed that limit. Also we can expect some accretion in the base when jio cinema and hotstar fully migrate to jio hotstar – both on subscription and free. As a result, I don’t expect reach of IPL to fall,” said Sakhuja.