The Indian Premier League is big for telcos

The Indian Premier League is big for telecom companies. Reason streaming. Ever since Reliance Jio disrupted the Indian telecom market with super affordable data plans. Smartphones have replaced the big screen for many. Also, with smart TVs becoming popular, media streaming too has become a norm.

It’s no different during the IPL. IPL 2024 is the 17th season of the popular Indian cricket league.

And like the past many years, all three major telecom companies in India — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea — are looking at IPL 2024 to boost revenues as the two-month long cricket carnival typically pushes up usage of data services and revenue.

Looking for revenue and margins boost
JioCinema is the official broadcaster of the IPL 2024. Like 2023, JioCinema is streaming IPL 2024 free on the JioCinema app. The two-month tournament period usually sees record streaming viewership, with the app recording 449 million total viewers on its platform during the coverage in 2023. Notably, average monthly data usage levels in the April-June quarter in 2023 increased by 8% for Jio, 4.2% for Airtel and 3.82% for Vi sequentially, as mobile phone users tuned in to watch the tournament live.

Plans and benefits from Reliance Jio and Airtel
India’s top three telecom operators have unveiled mobile and broadband plans to attract subscribers during IPL 2024. Reliance Jio has tripled the internet speed for its AirFiber subscribers – the telco’s fixed wireless access (FWA) offering – for the two-month IPL period. The company is also offering free usage of 50 days for its home broadband and FWA users. For mobile users, Jio is offering special cricket plans with additional 4G and unlimited 5G data.

For its prepaid mobile users, Airtel has introduced a more affordable unlimited data pack valid for up to two days with a fair usage policy of 20GB, along with bundling subscription to its music streaming service to its existing unlimited daily data plan.

The plans come bundled with relatively higher speed, free usage, additional data and other benefits, taking advantage of a typical mobile data spike between 3% and 8% during the period to boost revenue. The recharge plans on offer from Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for the tournament period provide users with additional data limits at a discounted price, besides providing extra data benefits to existing recharge packs. ToI