JioHotstar and Nielsen add more transparency to ad measurement with IPL 2025

New Delhi: Days after merging JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar, JioStar on Sunday announced a partnership with Nielsen to introduce third-party measurement on its newly rebranded OTT platform, JioHotstar.

Ahead of the high-stake IPL season, where brands park a major share of their ad spend, this move aims to bring more transparency to digital ad measurement, particularly for live sports.

Explaining the rationale behind this partnership, Ishan Chatterjee, Chief Business Officer, Sports Revenue, SMB, and Creator at JioStar, told BestMediaInfo.com, "Advertisers now demand greater accountability for their ad spends and want assurance that every ad impression counts."

The collaboration with Nielsen aims to fulfil this need by offering near real-time campaign-level metrics such as clicks, impressions, reach, and on-target reach on a dashboard—all validated by a third party.

"This is the first time such reporting will be independently verified," Chatterjee said, highlighting the shift from self-reporting to a more credible system. "Advertisers can now trust the investments they make on the platform."

Until now, the absence of third-party measurement led advertisers to view OTT data with a pinch of salt. 

"We are launching this partnership at the biggest possible time of the year, which is around IPL," Chatterjee explained while emphasising how this will give advertisers greater confidence in their IPL investments.

"As advertisers start to get these insights in near real-time, they'll have much greater confidence spending on IPL, ensuring their ads reach the intended audience," Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee expressed confidence that this transparency will lead to better advertising outcomes and a more robust IPL advertising ecosystem.

Knitty-gritty of the JioHotstar-Nielsen partnership

While Nielsen has been partnering with global platforms for real-time measurement, particularly for live sports, this initiative marks a first for India.

This partnership with Nielsen won’t be limited to only IPL or sports but will also extend to JioHotstar’s other entertainment properties as well in the future.

"This has never been done before for live sports in India. I see this as a sign of our commitment, of us walking the talk in terms of trying to drive this transparency into the ecosystem," Chatterjee commented.

Under this engagement, Nielsen will deploy tools like Nielsen ONE Ads (formerly Nielsen’s DAR—Digital Ad Ratings) and Volumetric and Reach Analysis on the platform.

Recently, after two years of showing IPL for free to viewers, this year JioHotstar (formed after the merger of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar) introduced tiered subscription plans for its 'loyal' viewers. This new form of advertising and subscription model is expected to minimise spillovers for advertisers by offering a more engaged audience with high purchasing power.

What’s new on the card?

When asked how this partnership differs from the existing collaboration of JioHotstar with Nielsen, Chatterjee explained, “Earlier, our partnership with Nielsen was similar to what they have with many other broadcasters and digital platforms. They offer a set of products, and advertisers are free to use them.

What's different now is this dedicated data pipeline that we are creating with them so that they're able to go deep and offer these campaign measurement insights in near real-time that were not possible before," Chatterjee added.

Hemant Kewalya, Executive Director - Audience Measurement, India, Nielsen, further elaborated on the enhanced offerings. "We are also giving impressions, click-throughs, and people-level reach at the same dashboard," Kewalya stated. "Earlier, it was not there; it was restricted only to people-level reach. Now we are adding impression-level measurement to the dashboard as well."

Arnaud Frade, President (Commercial), Asia, Nielsen, highlighted the significance of this collaboration. 

He said, “It's a completely different level of collaboration. It's delivering what advertisers demand, which is an independent, third-party measurement in the digital ad space, which is hyper-fragmented and extremely diverse."

He emphasised the comprehensive nature of the measurement solution. "Today, through this collaboration, we're able to deliver measurement on mobile, on laptop, on tablets, and on CTV for volumetrics and also across reach," Frade explained.

Kewalya clarified that while near real-time measurement will be available to all advertisers, regardless of their ad spend, it will not be offered as a value addition but rather as a paid service.

“The measurement will come at a cost,” Kewalya said. 

Road ahead

Kewalya added that this initiative could inspire wider adoption across the industry.

"This could start a journey where other publishers can also get motivated and inspired to collaborate in various other ways as well, to add to the ecosystem as a whole," he said.

Frade echoed this sentiment, highlighting the industry-wide benefits of this move towards transparency.

"What we're talking about here is uplifting the entire industry," Frade stated. "We're talking about demonstrating the value, the impact, the importance of third-party measurement."

He believes this initiative will challenge other platforms to adopt more robust and transparent measurement practices.

"If you are in this industry and you are serving advertisers, and you are at some stage still in a mode of self-reporting, then you're bound to be challenged by those advertisers," Frade said.

This enhanced partnership represents a significant step towards greater transparency and accountability in digital ad spending, particularly for live sports on OTT platforms, added Frade.