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Competition and disruptions can make businesses do things unheard of or, at least, tread the least taken path.
With the news that Jio would stream IPL 2023 free on the Jio Cinema app for consumers, news is trickling in that Disney Star has decided to take a similar approach.
According to reports doing the rounds, TV broadcast rights holder Disney Star would make the IPL available on FTA channel Star Utsav Movies. Incidentally, Star Utsav is on pubcaster Doordarshan’s free to air DTH platform, FreeDish, which commands over 40 million subscriber homes. But this could be a masterstroke also as it would bring in eyeballs that can be monetised.
Indianbroadcastingworld.com couldn’t get any confirmation from Disney Star by the time of publishing this report.
Whether the broadcast would be in HD version of the channel on cable and pay DTH platforms is also not clear at the moment.
But industry observers said this is a big move by Disney Star to make available IPL matches for free viewing.
It is also not known if all the IPL matches would be made available on FTA channels or select ones. And, whether advertising revenue mop up would be adequate if the IPL matches are made available on FTA channels is also a question that’s on everybody’s minds.
Stand by for more updates.
In October last year, Viacom18, the joint venture between Reliance-controlled TV18 and US entertainment major Paramount Global (earlier ViacomCBS), said it will move all existing sporting properties from the company’s existing video-on-demand service VOOT to JioCinema, starting with FIFA World Cup 2022,.
The company plans to make the JioCinema app the streaming destination for live sports.
These include football leagues LaLiga (Spanish), Ligue 1 (French), and Serie A (Italy), as well as the NBA and ATP Masters (Tennis) and Abu Dhabi T10 (cricket) properties.
“JioCinema is going to be our digital destination for sports, starting with FIFA 2022 in Qatar. We’ll also be moving other sports properties to JioCinema,” Anil Jayraj, CEO, of Sports at Viacom18 had then confirmed to the Economic Times.
He added that JioCinema will be available for download across all telcos-Jio, Airtel, and Vi-and across all devices, including iOS, Android, and connected TVs, for free.
