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JioHotstar nears Netflix with 300 mn subscribers after IPL 2025 surge
JioHotstar has reached 300 million subscribers, driven by massive reach and viewership numbers during the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), according to a report by JioStar.
With this, it has inched close to Netflix. In 2024, the US-based global streaming platform present in over 190 countries, had about 301.63 million subscribers, according to the data compiled by Statista. In comparison, Amazon Prime Video has over 200 million Prime members (some countries have Prime Video services bundled with their Prime membership, while in some regions Prime Video exists as a standalone video service, which is not included under Prime membership).
For the JioStar Network, the average daily reach during the cricket league on TV was 121 million viewers, while for the digital segment, it was 170 million viewers. This was two times the viewership of the Super Bowl (the annual championship game of the National Football League in the US), the report stated.
'Once a year for them (referring to the Super Bowl). Every day for us, (JioStar) for over two months straight,' it said in the report. During the 18th season of the IPL in May-June, JioStar had over 425 advertisers across 40 categories.
'India's growing influence in sports is nothing but a reflection of India's growing significance on the global stage, driven by a strong consumption-oriented economy,' Sanjog Gupta, chief executive officer (CEO), sports and live experiences, JioStar said in APOS fireside chat held in Bali.
'This IPL, not only have we reached a billion viewers across platforms, we have also managed to make this IPL the most monetised edition of the event and also the most monetised sporting event ever in India across advertising and subscription revenue,' Gupta further added.
India's biggest media conglomerate, JioStar, further highlighted that CTV (connected TV) viewership in the country has increased as its streaming platform, JioHotstar, was available on 99 per cent of the devices in India. It recorded 1.04 billion app downloads on Android.
'We believe sports serves as a recruitment funnel to bring in viewers and fans at scale, who then can be taken on a journey on a platform which could entail a live event, a Hindi entertainment show, or it could entail one of our new originals which are marketed on the back of a big sporting event and a recent example of that is the returning season of Criminal Justice, which benefited significantly by launching in the last week of IPL,' Gupta noted.
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