New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate will stream Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket games for free, using its exclusive rights to one of the world’s most-watched sporting event.

Viacom18 Media Pvt., the joint venture between Paramount Global and Ambani’s conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd., licensed the IPL streaming rights last year for $2.7 billion, fending off competitors Disney and Sony Group Corporation.

Disney previously had those rights, and used them to drive subscribers to its streaming service, Disney+ Hotstar.
Viacom18 is taking a different approach, offering the games to as many people as possible in order to generate advertising sales, said a business newspaper report.

Free media services such as Google and Facebook generate billions of dollars in advertising sales in the country, and have had far more success than paid premium products like Netflix.

Viacom18 executives have estimated that an audience in excess of 550 million will watch the weeks-long IPL games, which will boost the company’s technology and internet ambitions, ranging from online retail to entertainment.
This year’s series of matches, each lasting a relatively short three hours in length, will start on March 31 and go on for nearly eight weeks. Viacom18 will allow users to watch any number of games for any length time on any internet-connected device.

ALSO READ: IITG BioNEST successfully concludes industrial conclave