According to the website, JioCinema is celebrating a new milestone when digital viewing for the first time surpassed cable TV during a season of international sports. The telecommunications company claims that during the FIFA World Cup 2022 final event, where Argentina defeated France in a tense encounter that went into a penalty shootout, an astounding 32 million spectators tuned into its JioCinema website and phone app. The World Cup finals were seen by 110 million people online, making India one of the "largest digital viewership markets" for the international competition.
Having said that, it is important to note that Jio hasn't provided a clear explanation of how the viewership statistics are determined. Numerous customers encountered difficulties while attempting to stream the matches on the JioCinema website and mobile app during the first two days of the FIFA World Cup 2022. It's unclear whether the statistics were based on click-throughs or on having the page open for an undetermined period of time.
Jio claims that viewers watched for a "mammoth 40 billion minutes" on JioCinema and the Sports18 channel. The business asserts that during the competition, the app "remained to be the No. 1 downloaded" programme on iOS and Android. Anil Jayaraj, CEO of Viacom18 Sports, said in a prepared statement, "We promised to give consumers easy access to the world-class presentation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and on the back of that, the tournament became the most-watched global sports event on digital where India [Indian football team] has not participated."
"This shows the strength of digital and the preference viewers and fans have shown to consume their favourite events, with FIFA World Cup Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappé and FIFA World Cup and Golden Ball winner Lionel Messi now collaborating in the [French domestic] Ligue1."
The JioCinema app offers free live broadcasts of FIFA World Cup 2022 matches as well as a Hype Mode that automatically opens with interesting facts, team lineups, and statistics of the two teams competing, with the added benefit of allowing users to fast-forward to relive key moments. Users of the JioCinema app for Android TV can choose between different camera perspectives to watch the game.