New Delhi: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd on Friday announced that it had signed a five-year partnership deal with broadcast network Star India to make televised India-cricket matches available to users of its video streaming platform JioTV. This partnership will cover all cricket matches in different formats, including T20, one day internationals (ODI), international Test cricket and premier domestic competitions of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“Every Indian must have access to the best sporting events as well as quality and affordable bandwidth to consume the content. With this partnership, we intend to address both these objectives of providing the best sporting content with the best digital infrastructure to Reliance Jio users. Jio will continue to bring a superlative customer experience in the areas of sports, augmented reality, virtual reality, immersive viewing and more in the coming days," said Reliance Jio director Akash Ambani.

Reliance Jio is betting big on the content space by making strategic acquisitions and partnerships. In March, the company announced integration of digital music app Saavn for its digital music service JioMusic . In February, Reliance Industries Ltd announced that it would buy a 5% stake in filmmaker Eros International Plc.

Noting that Indian cricket under BCCI is one of the most compelling properties globally, Star India managing director Sanjay Gupta said, “We are excited to apply the same lens of innovation and reinvention to the property that we have applied to other sports in the last few years. And, with a new partner in Reliance Jio, we will have even more opportunities to raise the bar for cricket fans."

In April, Star India retained the television broadcast and digital rights for all domestic cricket under BCCI for the next five years at a whopping ₹ 6,138.1 crore. This win effectively established Star India’s monopoly over all cricket media rights, including the Indian Premier League (IPL), which it won for ₹ 16,347.50 crore (around $2.55 billion) in September 2017.

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Share Via