iWorld
JioHotstar serves up aces as TPL’s streaming partner for three seasons
MUMBAI: If tennis needed a power shot in India, this one lands right on the line. The Tennis Premier League (TPL) has inked a three-year partnership with JioHotstar, making the country’s largest streaming platform the official digital home of the league starting Season 7.
The multi-season tie-up marks a major leap for TPL’s digital ambitions, tapping into JioHotstar’s expansive reach to bring live matches, highlights, behind-the-scenes access, and exclusive features to fans nationwide. With tennis viewership soaring across India, the partnership aims to accelerate the sport’s rise from niche favourite to mass spectacle.
Founded on a fast-paced 25-point format designed to simplify the game for wider audiences, TPL has steadily built a loyal base backed by tennis icons Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi, along with celebrity co-owners Rakul Preet Singh and Sonali Bendre Behl.
Season 7, scheduled from 9 to 14 December 2025 at the Gujarat University Tennis Stadium in Ahmedabad, arrives with star wattage unlike any before. For the first time, the league will feature Top 50 international players, raising the competitive stakes dramatically.
The international line-up includes:
● Luciano Darderi (World No. 26)
● Alexandre Muller (World No. 42)
● Damir Džumhur (World No. 57)
● Dan Evans (former World No. 21)
● Rohan Bopanna, two-time Grand Slam champion
They join a strong roster of leading Indian and global players, setting the stage for TPL’s most electrifying edition yet.
Tennis Premier League co-founder Kunal Thakkur described the partnership as a milestone moment, “TPL has always aimed to revolutionise how tennis is consumed in India. Partnering with JioHotstar ensures fans everywhere can now experience the league in the most engaging and accessible way possible.”
Fellow Tennis Premier League co-founder Mrunal Jain added, “Our vision has always been to make tennis a household sport. JioHotstar gives us the perfect platform to reach millions and bring them courtside to the TPL experience.”
Season 7 powered by Clear Premium Water will feature eight teams, SG Pipers, Gurgaon Grand Slammers, Chennai Smashers, GS Delhi Aces, Yash Mumbai Eagles, Hyderabad Strikers, Gujarat Panthers, and Rajasthan Rangers, with Yonex Sunrise as the Official Equipment Partner.
As India gears up to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, TPL’s latest partnership signals a sport hitting its stride faster rallies, bigger names, and now, streaming access that ensures tennis fans never miss a point.
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.
