A key blow for JioStar came from an unlikely source -- the Indian government's ban on real-money gaming, the sector that had become cricket's biggest advertiser.
Barely two months before India hosts the 2026 T20 World Cup, the International Cricket Council finds itself staring at an uncomfortable reality as its biggest broadcast partner wants out.
According to an Economic Times newspaper report, JioStar, owned by Reliance, has formally informed the ICC of its intention to withdraw from its four-year media rights deal despite two years still remaining on the contract.
The reason? Mounting financial losses that have made the once-glittering property an unsustainable burden.
Caught off guard, the ICC has hit the reset button, reopening the sale of India media rights for the 2026-2029 cycle. The price tag: $2.4 billion.
But there are few takers, or so it seems.
Sources told the Economic Times that the ICC has already approached Sony Pictures Networks India, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. None of them bit. The pricing, these corporations felt, was far too steep especially in a cooling sports broadcasting market.
Ironically, if no buyer emerges, JioStar will be compelled to honour the existing deal until 2027.
JioStar's provisions for expected losses on sports contracts doubled in 2024-2025 from ₹12,319 crore to a staggering ₹25,760 crore, as revealed in its audited financials.
Before Viacom18 merged with Jio, Star India itself had reported a net loss of ₹12,548 crore in FY24, thanks largely to the same ICC media rights burden.
On the other end of the spectrum, the ICC continues to flourish. The governing body posted a $474 million surplus in 2024, underscoring cricket's global economics even as its marquee broadcaster bleeds.
A key blow for JioStar came from the Indian government's ban on real-money gaming, the sector that had become cricket's biggest advertiser.
Platforms like Dream11 and My11Circle exited overnight, ripping a ₹7,000 crore (~$840 million) hole in projected revenues.
Sony believes the ICC’s valuation is out of sync with the current market.
Yet, the pressure is so intense that Sony had to sub-license the digital rights of this year's India-England Test series to JioStar to soften financial risk.
As for Netflix, its sports ambitions remain limited to WWE. Cricket, for now, is still too expensive an experiment.
Amazon Prime Video has dipped its toe deeper than Netflix, with New Zealand cricket rights until 2026 and ICC rights in Australia until 2027, but even it isn't ready to take the plunge into India's premium cricket market at current prices.
With the clock ticking down to the T20 World Cup and no broadcaster willing to match its asking price, the ICC's billion dollar problem has arrived at the worst possible time. The next few weeks could reshape the business of cricket broadcasting in India.