Premier League clocks 9 bn minutes of watch-time on JioStar in 2025/26

MUMBAI: The Premier League has scored big with Indian viewers, clocking 9.04 billion minutes of watch-time across JioStar’s network during the 2025/26 season, according to a new study conducted by Nielsen in partnership with JioStar.

Titled The Beautiful Game’s Indian Decade, the report draws on BARC data and Nielsen consumer research to examine the changing profile, reach and viewing behaviour of Premier League fans in India.

Linear television accounted for a significant share of the viewing, with Premier League watch-time on LTV standing at three times that of the UEFA Champions League. Meanwhile, the League’s combined reach across JioStar’s linear television and digital platforms has grown 2.4X over the past five years, with its Indian follower base now at 144.5 million.

The growth is also increasingly coming from beyond India’s traditional metropolitan centres.

Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh together accounted for around 12 per cent of Premier League viewership five years ago. That share has now nearly doubled to 25 per cent, representing more than 200 per cent growth over the period.

Larger non-metro towns are also becoming an important part of the digital audience. Towns with populations above one million contribute around 55 per cent of mobile and web viewing and approximately 63 per cent of Connected TV viewing, underlining the League’s expanding footprint beyond the metros.

International football tournaments are proving to be another useful gateway for Premier League fandom. The report finds that when Indian fans watch leading Premier League players represent their national teams, their familiarity with those players increases, often carrying over into the club season.

Following the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Premier League viewership in India jumped 58 per cent in the subsequent season, followed by continued double-digit growth.

The audience is also proving attractive from an advertiser’s perspective. The study describes Premier League fans as one of India’s more premium sports consumer segments. 70 per cent pay monthly credit card bills of more than Rs 40,000, while 67 per cent have a CIBIL score of 751 or higher. Meanwhile, 87 per cent are paid subscribers to OTT, music or sports platforms.

Engagement extends well beyond simply watching matches. Across the season’s 380 fixtures, running from August to May, fans consume live games and highlights while also joining conversations around the League on social platforms.

And much of that fandom happens after dark. Around 27 per cent of total Premier League watch-time takes place between midnight and 3am, turning late-night matches into something of a weekly appointment for Indian fans.

Premier League chief media officer Paul Molnar said the report highlights the rapid development of the competition’s Indian fanbase and its growing connection with clubs and players.

“India has one of the Premier League’s most passionate and rapidly growing fanbases, and this report highlights how this has developed in recent years,” said Premier League chief media officer Paul Molnar.

He added that the League would continue working with JioStar to bring Indian supporters closer to the competition and improve the viewing experience.

For JioStar, the opportunity extends beyond the sheer size of the audience.

“The story of the Premier League in India today is one of integration where football has become part of the daily routine of millions of fans,” said JioStar head of sales, sports, Anup Govindan.

He said the report shows that growth is not only about scale, but also about affluence, engagement and diversity, with young audiences across metro and non-metro markets expected to drive the next phase.

Nielsen’s India lead for audience measurement, Hemant Kewalya, said football is India’s second-most popular sport among adults after cricket, according to Nielsen’s global research.

He added that the study offers a closer look at how Premier League audiences engage with football across regions and platforms, providing useful insights into changing viewing habits and the wider media ecosystem.

With its audience spreading beyond metros, its digital footprint expanding and fans staying up well past midnight, the Premier League’s Indian growth story is looking increasingly like a long game rather than a one-season wonder.