iWorld
JioStar ropes in Hyundai as CTV sponsor for T20 World Cup 2026
MUMBAI: Cricket, cars and connected screens are converging. JioStar has signed up Hyundai Motor India Limited as the connected TV co-powered sponsor for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 on JioHotstar, tightening the link between premium sport and premium screens.
Announced in Mumbai on 3 February 2026, the deal positions Hyundai at the centre of JioStar’s large-screen digital play, where live sport is fast migrating from cable boxes to internet-enabled televisions. JioStar, the official broadcaster for the tournament, is pitching itself as a results-driven platform that blends scale, data and immersive viewing.
The tie-up also extends Hyundai Motor Company’s global partnership with the International Cricket Council, under which it is a premier partner across men’s and women’s tournaments in six major ICC events between 2026 and 2027. The India arm’s pact with JioStar aims to carry that presence from stadiums into living rooms, stitching together on-ground spectacle and at-home streaming.
At the heart of the pitch is connected TV, now one of the fastest-growing routes to sports audiences in India. The format offers the visual heft of television with the targeting and measurement of digital, promising advertisers not just eyeballs but outcomes—recall, engagement and performance. For brands chasing high-attention households, live cricket remains the ultimate lure.
Anup Govindan, head – sports sales at JioStar, framed the shift as structural.
“Premium sports properties like the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup are powerful growth catalysts, and connected TV is increasingly the screen where these moments are experienced most meaningfully. This partnership with Hyundai Motor India Limited reflects a clear shift toward platform-led, long-term collaborations that prioritise effectiveness and outcomes. JioStar’s connected TV ecosystem delivers unmatched scale across premium households, incremental digital reach, and a high-attention environment that allows brands to drive real business metrics across brand and performance objectives.”
Tarun Garg, managing director and chief executive of Hyundai Motor India Limited, underlined cricket’s commercial muscle.
“Cricket is woven into the cultural fabric of India, with marquee ICC events generating billions of minutes of cumulative viewership, making it one of the most powerful platforms for brand engagement in the country. Our partnership with JioStar for connected TV advertising during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 enables us to connect with audiences where premium, live sports consumption is rapidly moving. With over 60 million Indian households accessing content via connected TV, this medium offers the immersive impact of television combined with the precision of digital. This collaboration builds on Hyundai Motor Company’s global association with the International Cricket Council and represents a natural partnership, bringing together HMIL’s scale, innovation and deep consumer connect with JioStar’s unmatched digital reach and leadership in premium sports streaming to deliver high-impact, future-ready brand storytelling.”
JioStar says its CTV stack helps brands find incremental reach among digital-first viewers and cord-cutters, while managing frequency across linear and digital without waste. The promise is a unified strategy: one campaign, many screens, measurable returns.
As cricket’s shortest format chases the longest tail of digital growth, sponsors are following the signal. The remote control is now an ad-tech tool, the living room a data point. In India’s streaming era, the boundary rope runs straight through the big screen.
