JioStar flags unsustainable cricket-rights costs despite 600m digital users
Vice chairman Uday Shankar says cricket remains a strong investment, but escalating media-rights prices are straining returns. JioStar is focusing on improved content experiences and a premium-video model as it scales its digital audience.
What happened
JioStar vice chairman Uday Shankar said escalating cricket media-rights costs are straining economics despite sports driving audience growth. The company has
Key facts
- 600 million monthly active digital users
- ₹951 crore
- five-year Women's Premier League media-rights deal
- billions of dollars committed to cricket properties
Why this matters
JioStar’s stance may create openings for partnerships, sublicensing, technology deals or selective rights packages as the company seeks audience scale without carrying the full cost of marquee cricket properties.
What to watch
- Bid behavior and winning prices in upcoming BCCI, IPL, ICC, and domestic-cricket rights tenders.
- Changes to free-versus-paid access for major cricket matches on JioStar platforms.
- Growth in paid subscribers, ARPU, ad yield, and watch-time during marquee cricket events.
- Evidence of package fragmentation, nonexclusive digital rights, or shorter rights cycles offered by cricket boards.
- Rival bidding signals from Sony, Zee, Amazon, Netflix, telecom operators, and international sports platforms.
- Advertising demand trends around cricket seasons and the willingness of brands to pay for digital targeting.
- Separate must-have cricket rights from lower-return bilateral, regional, and nonexclusive properties in future bidding.
- Expand paid sports and premium-video bundles while preserving limited free cricket access as a funnel.
- Increase ad-tech, commerce, and sponsorship integrations to raise revenue per live viewer.
- Push for rights packages with clearer digital exclusivity, longer terms, and more flexible inventory monetization.
- Invest in differentiated live experiences such as multi-language feeds, data overlays, creator formats, and personalized highlights to reduce dependence on rights exclusivity.