New Delhi: The Indian Premier League roared to life on March 22 with trailing expectations of being larger than ever. Sunday too, was packed with thrilling matches, including one that saw the ‘Thala’ faithfuls glancing at Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
While the stadium-goers had a full-fledged festival unfolding in front of them, several people on social media alleged that the screen-viewers had a tough time getting the full IPL experience.
Multiple users expressed their fatigue with advertisements hindering their viewing experience this IPL season.
Netizens from across regions flocked to social media platforms to display their disappointment with the IPL media rights holder.
Nisheeth Chauhan, Digital Lead - North, Havas India, called it “watching cricket in between ads and not vice-versa.”
Expressing his discontent, Chauhan stated, “I understand that ads in live events get you more credibility, and events like IPL can be the icing on the cake but this is too much fatigue and irritation.”
He predicted investments in IPL on JioHotstar going down by 2027, if this is continued.
Another user highlighted being bombarded with My11Circle ads during IPL matches. “It is the only thing I remember,” the netizens said.
Another disgruntled netizen took to X to call out this bombarding of ads, ruining key moments during matches. Take a look:
Many users complained of seeing ads that belonged to one category rather than being diverse across segments.
Another user on social media claimed that IPL was the only property that “shoves this many ads down people’s throats.”
Circling back to a certain type of ads, one user quipped:
One Sudheen Kamath, on LinkedIn, wrote, “As the IPL season starts, it's really sad to see that in spite of the awareness of the broadcasters that a lot of kids watch the matches to see their cricketing heroes in action, the advertisements that are dominating the scene are products like pan masala, surrogate marketing of course and energy drinks that should have been banned by now and the gambling ads that want to reduce people to gamblers. Really sad about the government’s inaction on this.”
Users also engaged with Grok, the xAI’s generative tool, seeking solutions to “mute” ads on JioHotstar.
To which Grok replied with:
Ad-based fatigue is real and detrimental. The issue of frequency capping has of late been the centre of discussion. According to a news report, Hindustan Unilever, one of the largest spenders in the ad world, had a tussle with JioStar on the premise that the OTT giant was serving repeated ads to users.
To bring in transparency on how ads are served on JioHotstar, JioStar announced its collaboration with Nielsen, aiming to offer near real-time campaign-level metrics such as clicks, impressions, reach, and on-target reach on a dashboard—all validated by a third party.
With the IPL's exclusive media rights, the merged entity is eyeing a massive influx of ad spends from brands. According to reports, JioStar plans to rake in Rs 4,500 crore from ad sales during the IPL 2025.
Earlier this month, the Health Ministry instructed BCCI to prohibit all forms of tobacco and alcohol promotions, including surrogate advertising, during the IPL 2025.
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