IPL, AI and scale: JioStar’s Ishan Chatterjee highlights live sports dominance at APOS

BALI: At the heart of a rapidly evolving global streaming landscape, live sport continues to punch far above its weight, according to Ishan Chatterjee, who said it remains one of the few formats capable of uniting audiences at massive scale.

Speaking at APOS 2026, Asia’s leading entertainment and technology summit, the JioStar sports chief executive officer Ishan Chatterjee underlined how India has emerged as both the most challenging and most rewarding market for live sports consumption.

He pointed to the unprecedented reach of cricket properties, noting that IPL 2026 has crossed 1.2 billion viewers, while JioHotstar set a global digital concurrency record of 72.5 million during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 Final.

“We are now operating at an incredible scale within India. We are regularly delivering over one billion viewers every IPL season. This season we reached 1.2 billion,” said Chatterjee. “Live sports, especially cricket, are unique in their ability to aggregate audiences at scale.”

He stressed that such scale is not uniform in nature, pointing to the diversity of India’s viewing ecosystem, from connected TVs in metros to mobile screens in rural regions. This, he said, makes personalisation essential to engagement.

Language diversity is also reshaping consumption patterns. IPL content alone is now available in more than 12 languages, with English accounting for less than 10 percent of total watch time. Regional language consumption, he noted, is growing at a significantly faster pace than other segments.

Beyond cricket, he highlighted the expansion of India’s broader sports ecosystem. Properties such as the Premier League, Wimbledon and the US Open have all seen strong growth in digital reach, while the platform now offers more than 350 days of live sports annually.

He also pointed to the long-term development of non-cricket properties, particularly Kabaddi, which has grown to over 300 million viewers after a decade of investment, demonstrating how new sporting ecosystems can be built through sustained storytelling and distribution.

On emerging engagement models, he highlighted the integration between sports streaming and commerce through Swiggy, allowing users to order food seamlessly while watching live matches without leaving the viewing experience.

He also spoke about artificial intelligence-led enhancements in partnership with OpenAI, which are enabling voice-first, multilingual and conversational discovery features during live matches, deepening fan interaction in real time.

Closing his remarks, Chatterjee said the future lies in blending scale with personalisation. As attention fragments across platforms, he noted that live sport’s ability to command focus while evolving into interactive, data-driven experiences will define its next phase of growth.