JioCinema creates a new record with 120 mn unique viewers during IPL

Reliance-owned JioCinema, which has the live streaming rights for Tata IPL, said it has created a world record with 12 crore unique viewers tuning in to watch the rain-impacted final match played on Monday.

Besides, the OTT platform also created another record of 3.2 crore of peak concurrency of viewers, said a statement from JioCinema on Wednesday.

"JioCinema's digital powerplay in TATA IPL 2023 broke global records to usher in a new era in sports viewing," it added.

Peak concurrency is the highest number of end users who are simultaneously logged in to the services at any given moment and unique viewers are the total number of viewers who came to watch videos.

This record-breaking customer engagement in TATA IPL came with unique differentiators from JioCinema as 17 simultaneous feeds across 12 languages, including 4K, with multi-cam views giving viewers an unprecedented degree of autonomy and stadium-like experience through AR/VR and 360-degree viewing.

"All this led to an increase in the average time spent of more than 60 minutes per viewer per match," said JioCinema statement.

Moreover, the advertisement revenue on digital platforms is substantially higher than on TV, with JioCinema having over 13 times the number of advertisers on TV, claimed JioCinema.

"JioCinema registered over 2.5 crore downloads, a record for the most installed app in a single day. After the unprecedented response through the first four weeks, JioCinema released a 360-degree viewing feature to delight fans, showcasing the power of immersive fan engagement on digital," it said.

JioCinema delivered high audience engagement through simultaneous social engagement through Jeeto Dhan Dhana Dhan. JioCinema's TATA IPL Fan Parks across 30 cities made out-of-home sports viewing omnipresent for the first time on digital.

Commenting on this Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj said this record-breaking scale combines with targeting, the flexibility of cost, measurement, interactivity and reach.

"The remarkable engagement and participation on digital marks an inflection point in the industry where both viewers and advertisers have made their preference clear making it a turning point for the way viewership as well AdEx is deployed going forward," he said.

The 2023 season of IPL viewership had a competition between TV and digital with the cricket board BCCI selling the broadcast rights for the 2023-27 cycle of the IPL for a whopping Rs 48,390 crore.

Disney Star had bagged the television rights for the Indian subcontinent for Rs 23,575 crore and Reliance-backed Viacom18 got digital rights for Rs 20,500 crore.

Tata IPL, which concluded on Monday, had a total of 70 league matches and 4 matches of the playoff.