JioStar says Premier League’s India audience is growing—and skewing affluent
JioStar-Nielsen research puts India’s Premier League fan base at 144.5 million, with linear TV and digital reach up 2.4x over five years. The audience shows high credit-card spending, strong credit scores and broad subscription adoption, while growth is accelerating in non-metro markets.
What happened
JioStar-Nielsen research finds Premier League viewership and reach rising sharply in India, with fans displaying affluent credit and subscription profiles.
Key facts
- 144.5 million Premier League followers in India
- 2.4x growth in JioStar linear TV and digital reach over five years
- 9.04 billion minutes watched on JioStar during the 2025/26 season
- 70% pay monthly credit-card bills above Rs 40,000
- 67% have CIBIL scores of 751 or above
- 87% subscribe to OTT, music or sports platforms
- Rajasthan, Bihar/Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh share rose from about 12% to nearly 25%
- More than 200% viewership growth in those regions
- 55% of mobile/web viewing and 63% of connected-TV viewing comes from towns above 1 million population
- 58% viewership increase after the 2022 FIFA World Cup
- 27% of watch-time occurs from midnight to 3 am
- 380 fixtures per season
Why this matters
The audience’s credit strength, card usage and subscription adoption make Premier League partnerships attractive for banks, fintechs, premium retailers and loyalty-platform alliances.
What to watch
- JioStar releases methodology, sample size, definitions of reach and independent validation for the 144.5 million audience estimate.
- Growth in Premier League streaming watch time, unique viewers, completion rates and connected-TV consumption relative to linear TV.
- Advertiser category mix shifts toward financial services, auto, travel, premium electronics, insurance and luxury.
- Regional viewership and engagement data from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar/Jharkhand, including whether growth translates into purchase power and retail conversion.
- New telecom, broadband, credit-card or device bundles tied to Premier League access.
- Changes in Premier League media-rights packaging, language feeds, local programming, kickoff scheduling or price/access barriers.
- Evidence that football campaigns outperform cricket or general-entertainment alternatives on customer acquisition cost and repeat purchase.
- Build Premier League audience segments around affluence, card usage, subscription propensity, city tier and language rather than treating football fans as one national cohort.
- Prioritize test-and-learn campaigns in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar/Jharkhand using regional creative, QR-led offers, local retail redemption and digital retargeting.
- Pair match inventory with measurable retail outcomes: card-linked offers, marketplace landing pages, store-visit studies, coupon redemption and post-match CRM acquisition.
- Use football sponsorships for premium-positioning categories, then extend the audience into adjacent tentpoles such as UEFA competitions, esports, travel and premium-device launches.
- Negotiate bundled rights, distribution and data packages with JioStar rather than buying isolated spots; require deduplicated linear-plus-digital reach and incrementality reporting.
- Avoid assuming claimed affluence is representative without validating against first-party transaction, customer and geographic sales data.