Reliance Jio launches 3GB per day cricket plans ahead of IPL 2023

Eyeing the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season, Reliance Jio has come out with a special prepaid recharge offering of 3GB data per day and special data add-on plans offering up to 150 GB of total free data, March 24 onwards. The move is expected to pull more users to watch the tournament on its JioCinema app this year.

Priced at Rs 219, Rs 399, and Rs 999, the three special cricket plans will have validities of 14 days, 28 days and 84 days, respectively. The company has also announced three data add-on plans — Rs 222 (50 GB), Rs 444 (100 GB), Rs 667 (150 GB). It has assured truly unlimited True-5G service will be available on all plans.

During the tournament, the Jiocinema app will have features like multiple camera angles to choose from, detailed analysis, play-alongs, and a special 4K (four times that of full HD resolution) broadcast (for connected television) to drive up engagement on both mobile phones and connected TVs.

Viacom18 is also taking special care to avoid tech and buffering snags that plagued its Fifa (football) World Cup broadcast in November-December 2022. The media company had live-streamed the Fifa World Cup to viewers for free, making it the first such event for a broadcaster in India.

“Many more such interesting announcements will follow in the next few days related to cricket and the immersive experiences that Jio has lined up for its users,” a Jio spokesperson said.

According to media industry estimates, as well as reports by E&Y and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), the number of households with pay TV in India is on the wane. From 161 million in 2018, pay TV households slipped to 133 million in 2019, dropping further to 129 million and 125 million each in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In 2022, it was down to 108 million.

In contrast, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, there are over 700 million active internet users in India, and the figure is projected to touch 900 million by 2025.