JioStar builds beyond ads to fund India's sports boom

Advertising is complemented by newer revenue streams to sustain a year-round sports operation.

JioStar is moving beyond advertising to fund its expanding sports portfolio, Chief Executive Officer Ishan Chatterjee said, detailing the company's push into commerce and AI-driven engagement.

Chatterjee said the push comes as the company looks to sustain a 350-day live sports calendar that now reaches over one billion screens annually. TATA IPL 2026 had already reached a combined 1.1 billion across 51 matches on linear TV and 57 on digital, with digital up 15% and connected TV (CTV) up 25% over last season.

Commerce enters the broadcast

The most visible new revenue move is an in-app integration with Swiggy, India's largest food delivery platform, launched during IPL 2026. Viewers can order food, track delivery, and complete transactions without leaving the broadcast. Chatterjee described it as a direct response to a clear consumer behaviour. "There is a clear connection between watching cricket and ordering food," he said.

The company also brought in 125 new advertisers this IPL season — 22 on digital, 16 on linear TV — spanning heritage Indian brands and technology platforms.

AI tackles the language problem

This year, JioStar integrated OpenAI's ChatGPT into its app, JioHotstar, for real-time engagement with live content, addressing what Chatterjee called the company's core distribution challenge: serving a market that requires more than 10 simultaneous language feeds per marquee event.

Regional language watch-time rose 42% this IPL season. Non-English, non-Hindi feeds now account for nearly 25% of total watch time, with Bhojpuri and Haryanvi viewership tripling in 12 months.

The ChatGPT integration goes beyond search. "It doesn't just solve the 'hey, what do I watch next' problem," Chatterjee said. "If there's a match going on, you can also engage with the content on the screen and ask, 'Hey, what did Vaibhav Suryavanshi score in the last game?' or 'What's his strike rate in the current game?' and you can get the answer back from ChatGPT in the stream itself without ever leaving the app."

TV and streaming treated equally

Despite digital growth, Chatterjee said JioStar is not prioritising one platform over another. For IPL 2026, the company launched Champions Waali Commentary, a dedicated CTV feed featuring former champions and players, designed for communal viewing. "We do not favor one over the other," he said. "Instead, we try to figure out what is the right consumer experience to deliver to the user if they're on a TV versus if they're on a mobile phone versus if they're on a connected TV."

Scale beyond cricket

Chatterjee also pushed back on the idea that JioStar's reach is a cricket story. The Premier League drew over 100 million viewers in India last season. The Pro Kabaddi League reached 300 million. Wimbledon and the US Open posted digital growth of 75% and 80%, respectively. "Scale is not exclusive to cricket. It's actually across many different properties, and it is all throughout the year," he said.

Looking ahead, Chatterjee said the company's investments in language, technology, and commerce were building toward something without global precedent. "We are trying to build a never-before-seen consumer experience, never seen anywhere in the world," he said. "We are very confident that we are rewriting the sports playbook, or what it means to be a sports broadcaster."