JioStar's Sports Chief Reveals Billion-Viewer IPL Strategy at APOS
JioStar CEO of sports and live experiences Sanjog Gupta delivered a masterclass in sports platform strategy during the APOS 2025 conference, revealing how the Indian media giant achieved its 'audacious' goal of reaching one billion viewers for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament while transforming the country's sports consumption landscape.
Speaking at the 'Sports Transformation: Velocity, Value & Impact in India' session, Gupta credited the platform's success to a fundamental shift away from traditional content-centric thinking toward what he called 'user-first design principles.'
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'We don't look to serve many fans as one, but look to serve almost each fan as many,' Gupta explained to the audience. 'Every fan at different points of time and on different devices and in different modes of consumption, will consume your content differently.'
The strategy has paid off dramatically. JioStar not only reached its billion-viewer target for IPL 2025 but also made it 'the most monetized edition of the event and also the most monetized sporting event ever in India across advertising and subscription revenues,' according to Gupta.
The platform's hybrid subscription model proved crucial to this success. Rather than implementing a traditional paywall, JioStar allows users to sample content freely before converting them to paid subscribers.
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'The model is based on real life example of how you shop, which is you go into a mall or a store, you sample enough and more of what you may want to look at, and then choose to pay for deeper engagement,' he said.
This approach helped drive subscriber numbers to close to 80 million paying users during the IPL season, representing what Gupta called 'a tectonic shift in the paying population in India.'
Gupta emphasized that JioStar's investment strategy extends far beyond rights acquisition. Over the past decade and a half, the company has invested more than $500 million in growing sports properties through marketing, production and technology development — separate from rights fees. In 2022, the IPL rights were bought for $6.2 billion by the two entities who have since merged to form JioStar.
'There's a joke in the company that all the money that Kevin [Vaz, CEO of entertainment] makes is actually spent by Sanjog,' Gupta quipped, referencing the cross-platform benefits of sports viewership driving consumption of other content genres.
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The platform's sports portfolio strategy mirrors its user-centric philosophy. Beyond cricket's nine-month calendar, JioStar has grown English Premier League viewership 3.5 times over five years through localization efforts, while continuing to invest in traditional Indian sports like kabaddi.
'We have looked to grow English Premier League significantly over the last five years… largely on the back of localization efforts, where we've taken Premier League deeper into the Indian sports ecosystem than ever before by producing it in languages meant for regions which have affinity for football [soccer],' Gupta said.
The executive also highlighted JioStar's expansion into live events, including partnerships with global acts like Coldplay, as part of creating 'infinite possibilities on the platform' that blend sports and entertainment experiences.
Looking ahead, Gupta outlined the platform's design principles for global applicability: inclusivity (maximizing platform access), intuitive user experiences (minimizing friction), interactivity (leveraging digital's two-way communication), and immersion (creating deeply engaging experiences).
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'These are design principles which, to our minds, are pretty much applicable to any platform around the world,' he concluded.
Following Gupta's presentation, JioStar released its comprehensive 'TATA IPL 2025: A Year of Firsts' report in partnership with Media Partners Asia. The detailed analysis revealed the tournament's unprecedented scale, with 1.19 billion total reach across TV and digital platforms, 47% female viewership on linear television, and JioHotstar growing to 300 million subscribers.
The report highlighted breakthrough technological innovations including multi-camera feeds, 360-degree VR streaming, AI-powered match highlights, and accessibility features like Indian Sign Language interpretation. With over 425 advertisers participating and 270+ brands making their IPL debut, the tournament demonstrated the commercial viability of JioStar's user-centric approach across 40 unique advertising categories.
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