IPL, India’s biggest media property, generates over Rs 4,000 crore in annual ad spends across TV and digital, with the gap between the two narrowing in both viewership and revenue. JioHotstar is owned by JioStar, a JV between Reliance, Disney, and Bodhi Tree.
While TV broadcasting has third-party measurement through the Broadcast Audience Research Council, digital platforms lack such a system, with much of the measurement being self-reported. Nielsen, which tracks ad effectiveness for major global sporting events like the Super Bowl, aims to bridge this gap.
Ishan Chatterjee, Chief Business Officer, Sports Revenue, SMB & Creator at JioStar, said Nielsen will establish a dedicated data pipe with JioHotstar, the IPL digital rights holder, to analyse first-party data. It will provide campaign-level insights, including impressions, clicks, and overall performance metrics throughout execution.
The initiative will later extend to other JioHotstar content, including entertainment, he noted.The audience measurement provider will set up a dashboard, Nielsen ONE, offering advertisers real-time ad performance insights. The service will be paid for, with advertisers charged based on impressions.Chatterjee noted that sports consumption has increasingly shifted to digital alongside linear TV. “One of the big challenges on the digital side is that there has never been one comprehensive ad measurement system, unlike what currently exists on TV,” he said.
“This is a big pain point for advertisers because, in this environment, every ad impression counts. They are demanding accountability, and we at JioHotstar want to address this,” he added.
Arnaud Frade, President (Commercial), Asia, Nielsen, noted that the initiative comes as the media industry, particularly digital, becomes increasingly fragmented. He noted that the two partners will offer a transparent, robust, census-based ad measurement system that tracks every user and ad across all devices, ensuring accurate volumetric data allocation.
“Advertisers are demanding and needing a much more precise and transparent measurement of their ads. This collaboration provides clear, third-party, independent measurement of various assets, starting with the IPL, and then there’s entertainment,” he added.
Both officials said the move will boost brand trust, attract ad spending from a wide category of advertisers, and help brands optimise budgets with real-time performance insights.
“This whole thing is a new first-of-its-kind initiative, definitely in India, definitely in live sports, probably in Asia and other markets as well. And it goes back to our central thought of wanting to revolutionise ad measurement on live sports. We are starting with live sports right now, but it will be extended to all properties on JioHotstar, which includes entertainment,” Chatterjee noted.
JioHotstar seeks to grow its market share by building advertiser trust and delivering superior outcomes, ensuring that every dollar spent with them provides better value than elsewhere.
“Now, when you have third-party validated campaign measurement practically in real time, and you are able to access this data through the dashboard, optimise campaigns, and have those discussions with us in real time, that is something no other player in the market offers, especially for live sports,” Chatterjee said.
