iWorld
Jio Pioneers yet another revolution launches india’s first interactive sports experience on jiotv
MUMBAI: India’s popular Live TV App JioTV announced today that it has introduced India’s FIRST interactive sports experience for consumers watching the ongoing tri-nation Nidahas trophy which is being shown exclusively on JioTV in India. With this, JioTV consumers can interact with the game while watching it – A revolution in the Live TV space.
Customers who watch the tri-series can:
1. Customize their viewing experience by selecting from 5 different camera angles
2. Experience audio from stump mic & stadium ambience, giving an immersive feel
3. Choose commentary in a language of their choice – Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada
4. Get access to leading cricket experts and commentators including Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Gaurav Kapoor
5. View score and other details on demand, on a single click
6. Watch catch-up (past content) in case they have missed a ball or a six
Once again, Jio has put the power of technology in the hands of the consumers, enabling them to challenge status quo. Till date, viewers are fed a single feed with broadcaster controlled video, commentary and score-boarding. With this innovation of digital interactivity, the game-viewing experience will get redefined.
“Interactivity in sports will transform the way sports is consumed in India. Jio continues to deliver the best and most premium content exclusively to its users through the Jio apps. Additionally, we have challenged status quo and redefined the existing user experience, with the help of technology. Jio will continue to bring a superlative consumer experience in the areas of sports, AR, VR, Immersive viewing and more in the coming days,” said Mr. Akash Ambani, Director, Jio.
JioTV users need to update to the latest version of the app from relevant app store to get this feature. JioTV, which recently won the prestigious Global Mobile (GLOMO) Award 2018 for the “Best Mobile Video Content”, has acquired the exclusive India digital rights for the T20 cricket series Nidahas Trophy – a tri-nation T20 competition being played at Colombo from March 6 to 18, 2018 between host Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India. JioTV will provide comprehensive coverage of the triangular series, enabling millions in India to access live and catch-up content on their mobile devices. The event coverage on JioTV will commence on match days at 6:25 pm. It will include live and repeat telecast and highlight packages.
Gaming
India’s broadcasters say no to Fifa World Cup 2026
Fifa has slashed its asking price by 65 per cent but India’s broadcasters are still not buying
MUMBAI: The world’s biggest sporting event cannot find a single taker in the world’s most sports-mad nation. Fifa’s television rights for the 2026 World Cup remain unsold in India, and the clock is ticking loudly.
To shift the property, world football’s governing body has already swallowed hard and cut its asking price from $100m to $35m, bundling in the 2030 edition as a sweetener. It has not worked. Indian broadcasters have looked at the offer, done the sums and quietly walked away.
The reasons are brutally simple. The 2026 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, kicks off in a time zone that turns India’s primetime into a graveyard shift. Most matches will air between midnight and 7am IST, a scheduling catastrophe for advertisers chasing mass reach. The 2022 Qatar edition was a gift by comparison, with matches dropping neatly into Indian evenings. North America offers no such luxury.
The market itself has also changed beyond recognition. The merger of Star India and Viacom18 into JioStar has gutted the competitive tension that once sent sports rights prices soaring. Where rival bidders once slugged it out, there is now a single dominant buyer, and it is in no hurry. JioStar has valued the rights at roughly $25m, a full $10m below Fifa’s already-discounted floor price. That gap has so far proved unbridgeable.
Broadcasters are also nursing a ferocious cricket hangover. Between 2022 and 2023, Indian media houses committed well over $10bn to cricket rights alone, covering IPL, ICC events and BCCI domestic fixtures combined. After a binge of that scale, appetite for a football package that delivers a fraction of the ratings, in the dead of night, is close to zero.
The economics of football broadcasting make the maths even harder. Cricket, with its natural breaks every few overs, is an advertiser’s paradise. Football offers a 15-minute halftime and precious little else. Recovering a nine-figure rights fee from a single half-hour ad window is a stretch at the best of times. These are not the best of times: the Indian government’s tightening grip on real-money gaming and gambling advertising has vaporised a category that once underwrote the economics of big sporting events.
Nor is the World Cup an anomaly. Indian Super League valuations have cratered. English Premier League rights have softened across successive cycles. The cooling of football as a broadcast commodity in India is structural, not cyclical.
With the tournament opening on 11th June, Fifa is running out of road. It may yet blink and meet JioStar at $25m. Or it may go direct, streaming the entire tournament on its own platform, Fifa+, or cutting a digital deal with YouTube, and hoping that a generation of Indian football fans finds its way there without a broadcaster to guide them.
Either way, the beautiful game’s Indian chapter is looking decidedly ugly.
