section_path: Broadcasting
section_name: Broadcasting
paragraph_text: Broadcasting
  
  The IPL has been India's most-watched sports property; JioCinema estimated that an average of 620 million viewers watched part of the 2024 Indian Premier League overall, with at least 350 billion minutes streamed across the tournament. The 2025 final was seen on Star Sports by 169 million viewers, making it the most-watched cricket broadcast to-date on linear television.
  
  Currently, domestic media rights are held by JioStar, under contracts originally awarded in 2022 to its corporate predecessors Disney Star and Viacom18; coverage is carried via its streaming service JioHotstar, and the Star Sports pay television networks. The main packages for domestic television and digital rights were collectively valued at around US$6.2 billion (more than double the value of the previous contract), causing the IPL to overtake the Premier League in English football as the second highest-valued sports media property worldwide, behind only the National Football League (US$111 billion).
  
  The IPL's media rights were originally held from 2008 to 2017 by Sony Pictures Networks (domestic) and World Sport Group (international) under a ten-year contract valued at US$1.03 billion. Coverage was split between SPN channels such as Sony Max (which primarily carried coverage in the Hindi language), Sony Six (Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu), and Sony ESPN (English). SPN also produced Extraaa Innings T20, an aftershow that combined post-match analysis with entertainment features such as celebrity guests and interviews.
  
  The media rights were then held by Star India from 2018 to 2022, under a contract valued at US$2.55 billion—which, at the time, was the highest-valued broadcast rights contract in the history of cricket. Star Sports would hold the pay television rights, while Disney+ Hotstar held the digital rights. In 2022, Disney Star lost the digital rights to a consortium of Reliance Industries and Viacom18 (which would stream the IPL for free via their streaming service JioCinema), while maintaining the pay television rights for Star Sports. The loss of IPL rights notably contributed to Disney losing 2.4 million Disney+ subscribers worldwide in fiscal Q4 2022.
  
  The IPL has been India's most-watched sports property; JioCinema estimated that an average of 620 million viewers watched part of the 2024 Indian Premier League overall, with at least 350 billion minutes streamed across the tournament. The 2025 final was seen on Star Sports by 169 million viewers, making it the most-watched cricket broadcast to-date on linear television.
  
  Currently, domestic media rights are held by JioStar, under contracts originally awarded in 2022 to its corporate predecessors Disney Star and Viacom18; coverage is carried via its streaming service JioHotstar, and the Star Sports pay television networks. The main packages for domestic television and digital rights were collectively valued at around US$6.2 billion (more than double the value of the previous contract), causing the IPL to overtake the Premier League in English football as the second highest-valued sports media property worldwide, behind only the National Football League (US$111 billion).
  
  The IPL's media rights were originally held from 2008 to 2017 by Sony Pictures Networks (domestic) and World Sport Group (international) under a ten-year contract valued at US$1.03 billion. Coverage was split between SPN channels such as Sony Max (which primarily carried coverage in the Hindi language), Sony Six (Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu), and Sony ESPN (English). SPN also produced Extraaa Innings T20, an aftershow that combined post-match analysis with entertainment features such as celebrity guests and interviews.
  
  The media rights were then held by Star India from 2018 to 2022, under a contract valued at US$2.55 billion—which, at the time, was the highest-valued broadcast rights contract in the history of cricket. Star Sports would hold the pay television rights, while Disney+ Hotstar held the digital rights. In 2022, Disney Star lost the digital rights to a consortium of Reliance Industries and Viacom18 (which would stream the IPL for free via their streaming service JioCinema), while maintaining the pay television rights for Star Sports. The loss of IPL rights notably contributed to Disney losing 2.4 million Disney+ subscribers worldwide in fiscal Q4 2022.