Planetcast Media Services Announces Delivery Of IPL 2024 Season

Planetcast Media Services has announced its faultless delivery of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season, with zero downtime or glitches across 74 matches held in 13 stadiums.

This exceptional performance continues Planetcast's legacy of providing top-tier media services for major cricketing events, including the recent T20 World Cup (2nd-29th June), which ended with India defeating South Africa.

Having established itself as a leader in seamless, high-quality broadcasting and streaming solutions, Planetcast has been a trusted technology partner for the IPL for the last 17 years and, in 2024, ensured that cricket fans enjoyed coverage of the T20 World Cup via Star Sports, Hotstar and Times Internet Group's Cricbuzz. Planetcast's advanced media services enabled the delivery of advertising of around $450 million for the IPL rightsholders (almost equally split between broadcast and digital platforms, and on par with the $465 million in 2023).

For the 2024 IPL season, Planetcast provided the following services:
• Star Sports: Delivering domestic TV broadcast to 17 channels in 11 languages with services such as encoding, live transmission, playout, packaging, and delivery solutions.
• Viacom18: Supporting over-the-top (OTT) streaming on JioCinema.
Times Internet: Facilitating international OTT streaming and playout for Cricbuzz.

"Our long-standing partnership with IPL rightsholders underscores our capability to handle live events of significant scale that generate advertising revenues of $450+ million," said Sanjay Duda, CEO of Planetcast Media Services. "With the financial stakes so high, it's critical that we remain dedicated to performing flawlessly and that we enhance match coverage across all the platforms we handle. We are also incredibly excited to have provided media services for the T20 World Cup, which concluded last weekend with India hoisting the trophy after the exciting win against South Africa."

The IPL's exponential growth is evident in the record-breaking viewership figures year after year. Star Sports, Disney Star's broadcasting channel for IPL 2024, drew a record-breaking audience of 546 million over the first 67 matches, according to figures from India's Broadcast Audience Research Council. JioCinema's streaming figures show a 38% increase in viewers streaming IPL in 2024 over 2023, with 620 million viewers watching matches on the Viacom 18 service. IPL's opening 2024 match alone attracted 111 million fans on JioCinema, marking a staggering 51% increase from the year before.

Building on its IPL success, Planetcast is also providing comprehensive services for the T20 World Cup, including:

• Star Sports: Managing the world feed via satellite, covering 17 channels in three languages, and providing encoding, live transmission, playout, packaging, and delivery solutions.
Hotstar: Delivering disaster recovery services, channel content replacement, and vertical feed delivery.
• Times Internet Group (Cricbuzz): Implementing AI-based editing for instant highlight creation, near-real-time ad insertion, and graphic insertion and playout for the US market.

www.planetc.net