Ahead of the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on March 22, OTT streaming giant JioHotstar is going all out to lure startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for advertising during the marquee cricket tournament by offering targeted ads at “affordable” rates.
“Now you can afford to advertise your business on the TATA IPL,” a brochure sent by the OTT platform to ad and market agencies last month, and reviewed by Inc42, reads.
In its brochure, JioHotstar has introduced exclusive advertising package plans between INR 15 Lakh and INR 1.5 Cr. With these, the company claims businesses will be able to attract more customers, boost visibility, and cement their credibility in their local areas.
This comes weeks after JioStar announced that it is merging its OTT platforms JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar to launch JioHotstar.
According to the chief business officer (CBO) of sports revenue, SMB and creators segments of the JioStarIPL, Ishan Chatterjee, the company has built its ad playbook around three pillars — unmatched reach and scale, innovative targeting, and advanced measurement. It is pertinent to mention that before joining the platform in September, Chatterjee served as the managing director for YouTube India for a period of two years.
“Our primary objective is to make the IPL as accessible as possible to a broad spectrum of advertisers, from large brands to small and medium businesses. We have made IPL accessible to brands across various segments by not limiting the fixed minimum ticket size for advertising. We are offering flexibility, with decisions based on factors such as an advertiser’s goals, reach, ad assets and targeting capabilities,” the CBO added.
As per the brochure accessed by Inc42, the OTT giant is offering five ad packages – INR 15 Lakh, INR 25 Lakh, INR 50 Lakh, INR 90 Lakh and INR 1.5 Cr – for the upcoming tournament. These charges don’t include GST.
To onboard more startups and SMEs as advertisers for this year’s IPL, the platform has launched an SMB outreach programme across 10 cities.
“Under this drive, we are demonstrating how the tournament can drive growth not only for large corporations but also for SMEs,” Chatterjee said.
Overall, JioHotstar plans to host events under the outreach programme across 10 cities in the run-up to the IPL to attract 1,000-2,000 advertisers per session.
“A common misconception among SMBs is that advertising on the IPL requires a massive budget. Through these initiatives, we are demonstrating how brands (big and small) can leverage the IPL’s unmatched reach while optimising costs. Startups and MSMEs have shown strong interest in IPL 2025, leveraging its massive scale, targeted reach, and digital precision to engage their audiences effectively,” Chatterjee said.
What’s In It For Startups And MSMEs?
JioHotstar is providing flexible options to advertisers for multiple placements and impressions to fit in according to different budgets. Besides, the OTT platform will provide expert guidance to help advertisers choose from display or video ads to magnify their message.
While display ads are image-based brand communications that pop up below the livestream, video ads would be 10-second ads that will run before, during or after the regular programming.
In case of both the ad formats, JioHotstar will allow the advertisers to target their specific audiences based on geographic location (city, state or region) they want to run their ads. Advertisers can also choose the matches during which they want their ads to run.
Chatterjee said that for this year’s IPL, JioHotstar will offer its advertisers access to over 100 advanced-targeting options, including demographics, language, first-party data, and interest-based targeting.
Besides, the OTT platform has also partnered with Nielsen to introduce India’s first comprehensive, third-party validated audience measurement for digital live sports.
In its pitch to advertising agencies, JioHotstar is also touting the results of a “brain mapping” research conducted by it. It says that the research analysed the neuron, or brain cell, response of participants and this showed that its streaming ads have a higher engagement rate compared to Google. Reuters was the first to report this development.
Why IPL Is A Big Deal For Advertisers & JioStar?
While the IPL is still two weeks away, Chatterjee said that the response from advertisers has been positive. “We are seeing strong demand across key categories, including beverages, ACs and fans, BFSI & fintech, mobile handsets, fantasy gaming,” the CBO said.
At the heart of this rush is the popularity of the IPL, which is among one of the most viewed sports leagues in the world. Last year, the number of startups partnering with IPL teams increased 68% year-on-year to 32, including Bira91, boAt, FanCraze, Upstox, slice, Rapido, EatSure (Rebel Foods), among others.
As per a document reviewed by Reuters, JioStar has set a target of reaching 40 Mn smart TVs and 420 Mn mobile devices during this year’s IPL.
Notably, JioHotstar’s predecessor JioCinema achieved a record-breaking viewership on Day 1 of IPL 2024, with over 11.3 Cr people tuning in to watch the match.
It is pertinent to note that Viacom 18 outbid Star India in 2022 to win the rights for streaming IPL for the Indian subcontinent for five years for INR 20,500 Cr ($2.57 Bn). Star India won the TV broadcasting rights for the tournament for INR 23,575 Cr ($3.02 Bn).
Post the merger of Reliance Industries and The Walt Disney’s Indian media business in November last year, JioStar has been looking to shore up the top line and cut corners.
Be it the recent report of culling hundreds of jobs or initiatives like opening ad streams for startups at prices as low as INR 15 Lakh, the streaming behemoth seems to be pounding the return on investment (RoI) table from all sides.
Understandably, a merger of this size will need much to create a stable company, and offering innovative ad slots seems to be one of the many offerings that can be expected in the near future. For now, the company has been quick to cash in on the IPL mania of cricket-crazy Indians, with Indian startups and MSMEs by their side.
[Edited by: Vinaykumar Rai]
The post Gearing Up For IPL 2025, JioHotstar Rolls Out Red Carpet For Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.
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