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Sanjog Gupta, CEO – Sports, JioStar
In the first part of a freewheeling interview with RevSportz, the CEO of JioStar takes a deep dive to look at the growth of the IPL brand, the idea behind the concept of Indian Possible League and more.
Sanjog Gupta, the current Chief Executive Officer of JioStar, has delved deeper into the regionalisation and customisation of sports broadcast. In the first part of this exclusive chat with RevSportz, he shares his thoughts on a range of topics, including the growth of the IPL brand, and how the brand has married broadcasting with local languages and culture to provide the viewers a unique experience.
When I see the IPL brand, and when I see the data, they are staggering numbers. What stands out is that there is a continuous increase, the country doesn’t seem to have enough of this brand. Is it because of the point that India wins every night? Is that the reason that distinguishes the IPL from even the World Cup and any other cricket competition?
You’re bang on. I think the IPL is now no longer a sporting event in this country. It is now almost a two-two-and-a-half-month cultural phenomenon that envelopes people’s lives and invades in ways that most people don’t realise. A big part of that is of course the sporting competition and the event itself entails India taking on each other and yet India winning every night as you said.
I think there are two parts. One part of it is of course the bittersweet rivalry that exists between various teams, some players playing against each other, the whole concept of best players from around the world playing against the best players in India, the best players in India playing against each other, which we otherwise don’t see. And all of it played out in this manner, which is extremely positive and reinforces the joy of the sport or the joy of the competition. That combined with I think the new layers that the competition has found, which has sparked passion in a way that no other competition does.
So, for example, you have been tracking as I do, the emergence of talent from nowhere; the talent that is coming from smaller cities, people haven’t heard of these kids before just breaking out and owning that moment. I think that unpredictability and also the potential of the talent that this country has, nothing exhibits or demonstrates it better than IPL. Whether it is Ashutosh Sharma, on his day, winning a game from nowhere. Or the young debutant who impresses everyone with the way he bowls for Mumbai Indians, or actually the reaction of a fan who was in Guwahati to watch Dhoni bat. And her reaction, which then became a collective expression or the demonstration of the collective expression of many people, who were experiencing that moment at the same time.
Dhoni delivers a vintage finish, reminding fans why he’s still the heart of the IPL. In a game that had 22 players, there was only one hero.@BoriaMajumdar writes #IPL2025 #LSGvCSK #MSDhoni https://t.co/ndiIRcpDK6
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) April 14, 2025
I will add two layers to the above-mentioned points. In India, this is the only forum where in a very positive way the country’s greatest business houses are also fighting with each other. Secondly, in 2012, when I had spoken to Uday Shankar at length, he said – Look, the next big revolution is the vernacular.
The Ashutosh Sharma or the Ashwani Kumar story sets the narrative because of 16 different feeds in digital or vernacular. I’m consuming Ashutosh in my language. So, in a way, the IPL has married broadcast, language, India together in the real sense. Your thoughts on that?
I can’t agree with you more, as I said at the start that these two months are like a cultural cornucopia for the nation, in ways which brings together people from such different walks of life that it becomes as much an unifying force which pits one against the other: Players, fans, legions of fans, cities, owners etc. But at the very core of it as you said yourself, it is the unifying force that brings them together to experience a moment in time, all at once, in that moment.
As broadcasters, as you and I have discussed since 2017 that our role is to present this unique unifying cultural phenomena in all its splendour. But also as you said, serve the segments of fans who engage with the sport differently, in different ways. For the longest time, a broadcast was about serving many fans as one. Now, in fact, we have to serve one fan as many. You know this yourself, no longer do we have fans watching one feed. Most fans as you know watch two-three feeds at different points of time because they want to experience the sport in different ways, they want to experience the competition in different ways, they want to see the cultural nuance of their state really being seen or exhibited in the sport or the game or the competition they love so much.
So, it is interesting when we start putting together the ideal plan, the approach is to always elevate the spectacle and make it more mythical. And this year, we called it the ‘Indian Possible League’, where the possibilities in this league are limitless, which applies equally to an unknown cricketer, who you have never heard of, coming and winning a game out of nowhere.
And it is the possibility of a 43-year-old legend still being able to keep for 20 overs and marshall his troops in conjunction with his captain towards success. At one level, you’re making the tournament more mythical, elevating the spectacle, you’re building the cultural phenomenon that IPL is. But at the other end, you’re trying to constantly find audiences that are underserved or currently not served. That is where the growth also comes. You’re constantly on the lookout to say what is the consumer experience that you want to deliver, which will make it more engaging. How do we deepen a fan’s immersion with the competition? How do we make it more interactive? How do we use the digital platform and the features on offer to make it more immersive, more interactive. Also, more intuitive.
MS Dhoni returning to lead the side again didn’t immediately bring on the new captain bounce. But the CSK management is putting things in perspective. They are still confident of a turnaround.#MSDhoni #LSGvsCSK
@shamik100 https://t.co/VczmHXFiX9
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) April 14, 2025
Even now, Television is seeing growth. While there is 40 percent growth on digital, you’re seeing an equal amount of growth on TV. Has that kind of surprised you and what is the way forward?
You and I discussed this a few years back, our focus is to always serve fans. If the fan chooses the offering or entertainment on a six-inch screen, in a highly intimate personalised environment or a highly intimate personalised service, then the fan is making the choice based on the environment that the fan is placed in. But the same fan may want to experience the community aspect of that sport, we know how the sporting experience gets elevated when it is in the company of others, and that experience truly comes alive when it is on the bigger screen.
The fact that we are now shaping growth across both the platforms and our ambition is to maximise the engagement and the touchpoints of fans across every platform. So, it is no longer an experience or a service or an event experience that we are putting out, which is limited to one screen or the other. Actually, we are trying to stimulate growth across every screen by virtue of getting fans more deeply involved with the event.
Like I said that has to do with both: You want to go as wide as possible, but you also want to go as deep as possible. So, you want to go wide with the accessibility, making sure no fan is left, or no viewer is left behind. He or she must have some access to the ideal in some form or the other across one screen or the other. On the other side, you’re trying to go as deep as possible by making it as relevant as possible to every audience segment that you have. This may be someone in Chennai, or in Coimbatore, who is a deep CSK fan or wants to watch day-long coverage of CSK in Tamil and wants to really feel cricket to be in the culture of the state.
RCB fans in the IPL 2025 (PC: RCB)
It is not just about the language, it is also about the culture. It goes beyond the language, language is just one component of it, but each of these feeds are demonstrating what the cultural representation of that sport is. So, when we produce a Bhojpuri feed, it is very different in tone, tenor, manner and its presentation than the feed in Bengali or the feed in Marathi.
That is the kind of nuancing we are doing to the IPL experiences to make it much more massive and also make it much more inclusive because let’s not forget a lot of people in this country don’t just consume content in English or Hindi or a few other languages. They consume it in multiple languages and they prefer to consume it in languages that they are familiar with. Thus, the bouquet of cultural feeds we are offering are also trying to make the game as accessible as possible to every last fan.
The post “Broadcast was about serving many fans as one, now we have to serve one fan as many”: Sanjog Gupta appeared first on Sports News Portal | Latest Sports Articles | Revsports.
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[[{“value”:”In the first part of a freewheeling interview with RevSportz, the CEO of JioStar takes a deep dive to look at the growth of the IPL brand, the idea behind…
The post “Broadcast was about serving many fans as one, now we have to serve one fan as many”: Sanjog Gupta appeared first on Sports News Portal | Latest Sports Articles | Revsports.”}]]
