Broadcast & streaming rights
Match 17 (PBKS v SRH) was broadcast on the Star Sports Network in India and streamed on JioHotstar, illustrating the distribution channels used for IPL fixtures. (crictoday.com). League schedule and venue timing are tightly interlocked with broadcaster and streaming windows in public fixture listings. (sportingnews.com)
The Indian Premier League’s television and streaming split is visible in every fixture: matches air on Star Sports in India and stream on JioHotstar. (bcci.tv, jiostar.com) That arrangement comes from the league’s 2023-2027 media-rights sale, which the Board of Control for Cricket in India said was worth 48,390.32 crore rupees in total. The board said Star India won the television package and Viacom18 won the digital package in the June 2022 auction. (bcci.tv) By the 2026 season, those distribution lines were operating under the JioStar umbrella, which has described itself as the official broadcaster and streaming partner for Tata Indian Premier League 2026. JioStar said its opening weekend this season reached more than 515 million viewers across Star Sports Network and JioHotstar combined. (jiostar.com, jiostar.com) The schedule is built around those windows as much as around stadium availability. The official 2026 fixture list shows standard start times of 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Indian Standard Time, with dates, venues and match numbers published together for broadcasters, streamers and ticket buyers. (iplt20.com, scores.iplt20.com) That timing grid shapes how the tournament is consumed. Afternoon and evening slots create fixed appointment viewing, while the same match is packaged simultaneously for linear television audiences and app-based streaming users. (scores.iplt20.com, jiostar.com) The rights cycle also explains why each match listing now carries platform cues alongside cricket details. JioHotstar’s 2026 tournament hub carries live matches, highlights, schedules and points tables, turning the streaming service into a full-season destination rather than a simple video feed. (hotstar.com) The league has tied its own official schedule documents to those media partners as well. The published season schedule names an official broadcaster and an official digital streaming partner, and adds that fixtures may still change at the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s discretion. (scores.iplt20.com) So when a single Indian Premier League game appears on Star Sports and JioHotstar at a fixed local time, it is not an ad hoc choice. It is the working model of a five-year rights deal, a two-window daily schedule and a league calendar built for both television and streaming. (bcci.tv, iplt20.com, jiostar.com)
