Recently the UEFA Champions League started and the rights for streaming it in India was bagged by Sony Liv in terms of OTT platforms. In the meanwhile, India’s own Major Soccer League called the Indian Super League (ISL) too started a few days before the Champions League. The rights for streaming ISL were bought by Jio Cinema. It becomes interesting as not only the clash between the viewership of two leagues, but also of two platforms will be seen in this season.
As per reports the ISL saw a great increase in viewership when it shifted from Hotstar to Jio Cinema. Champions League too has a great fanbase in India and it sees a good amount of viewership. The platforms have their own pros and cons but the experience counts when watching a sport live.
While both the platforms offer quite good experiences, the main divide between them is the need for subscription. To enjoy live sports streaming one needs the Sony Liv subscription, whereas Jio Cinema offers premium sports streaming for free users as well. In fact most of the content available in Jio Cinema is available for free users. In India, most people cannot afford paying for the subscription of each platform, but availability of free streaming gives Jio Cinema a huge advantage. This is the reason IPL saw a 51% increase in viewership when it was shifted from Hotstar to Jio Cinema.
Jio Cinema also gets an edge in the experience provided in free as well as subscription plans. One can enjoy ISL in full HD on a free account. The platform provides the feature of commentary in many regional languages which has appealed to the audience a lot. Also it is the first platform to provide a true 4K live streaming experience for its users (though for paid subscribers only). This makes live sports a feast to watch in Jio Cinema.
On the contrary, Sony Liv still has quite a backdated manner of sports streaming. Live sports streaming is only available for paid users, though people can still watch the highlights and other momentary feats of the game like goals, best moments etc. Apart from this the users can also catch replays for the games which is very useful for the ones who can miss a match. The paid subscribers can watch the matches in full HD but the 4K option is not there.
Though Champions League is a far more popular league (probably the most popular) when it comes to football, still the experience that Jio Cinema provides with ISL exceeds that of Sony Liv. It is anticipated to have a tremendous amount of viewership considering the main advantage Jio Cinema has- live sports streaming for free users.