JioHotstar becomes world’s third largest OTT platform after IPL boom with subscribers zooming past...

JioHotstar has achieved its first milestone within exactly two months after it was launched in India. The newly launched OTT platform has crossed 200 million subscribers and one major reason for this is the craze for the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) that left fans glued to the IPL live streaming. JioHotstar has now become world’s third largest OTT platform and India’s largest. 

JioHotstar crosses 200 million subscribers

The global OTT market is led, ahead of JioHotstar, only by Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. JioHostar was launched on February 14, 2025, after Disney+Hotstar and JioCinema merged officially.  

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited has achieved a massive subscriber base of 100 million after IPL 2025 started in March. Even at the time of launch, it had garnered 50 million subscribers. Talking to the Business Standard, Sanjog Gupta, CEO-sports at JioStar said “In linear TV, we have added 2 million homes. The pay TV ecosystem has grown by 2 million homes in the past three weeks on the back of IPL.” 

Key factors behind massive subscriber base

Sanjog Gupta pointed out that “engage viewers” spends “60 to 100 minutes” on IPL which has witnessed a growth in viewership. He said, “There are deeply engaged viewers. They are devoting their attention, so every match tends to, on average, have between 60 to 100 minutes of engagement. And they also happen to be watching the content with both - propensity to receive messages because they're deeply involved, and also the environment of that message is brand safe." 

Not just viewership, but global advertisements and brand visibility are also key factors leading to this growth. “Due to the growing global recognition of IPL as a marquee cricket tournament, we’re seeing a lot of interest around the world from advertisers who want to be part of the IPL. It’s delivering on advertising revenues and subscriptions,” he said.  

“They (international advertisers) have dabbled in the IPL (earlier as well) but it has not been at this scale. The fact that we have five airline partners which include Turkish Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates goes to show how strongly the international aviation sector sees the IPL as a property which can help deliver their brand objectives,” he added.  

According to Vice Chairman of JioStar Uday Shankar, this achievement pushed JioHotstar to be included among the top league of global streaming giants. Pointing towards the platform’s larger Indian subscribers as the main reason behind this feat, Shankar said, “It’s pretty satisfying.”