FILE PHOTO: A woman rides her scooter past advertisements of Reliance Industries' Jio telecoms unit, in Ahmedabad, India, July 5, 2018. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo
(Reuters) - Reliance Jio, India's largest telecom firm by users, said on Monday it will start charging users to stream Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, ending two years of free streaming of one of the country's most-watched sporting events.
The new recharge plan, which starts at 299 rupees ($3.44) for Jio's mobile users, will enable them to watch the IPL on Reliance-Disney's newly merged JioHotstar streaming platform, the Reliance Group-owned firm said.
IPL, a money spinner and among the country's most-streamed content, is scheduled to be held between March 22 and May 25.
The move comes a month after Reuters reported that the Reliance-Disney JV will no longer offer free streaming for IPL cricket matches, as was the case in 2023 and 2024 in the old JioCinema platform, and will adopt a hybrid model where subscription kicks in after content consumption reaches a threshold.
The new plan also includes a 50-day trial of Reliance Jio's, broadband internet services, to help boost home internet dominance with high-speed sports streaming.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's pricing strategy for the IPL and other cricketing events are closely watched - media rights for those have cost the merged group, India's biggest entertainment giant, nearly $10 billion in recent years.
The JV runs more than 100 TV channels and streaming apps in India's $28-billion media and entertainment market.
($1 = 86.8440 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Indranil Sarkar and Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
