There is a lot of discussion on social media about the recently held India vs. New Zealand Champions Trophy final match. Jio Cinema and Hotstar claimed that this match got 90 crore views. Everyone was surprised to hear this number because the total population of India is 140 crore, and the number of internet users is only about 90 crore. The question arises: were internet users of the whole of India watching this match simultaneously?
Recently, on social media, Manan Sonjee’s Instagram handle shared a video and exposed that Jio Hotstar shows fake views to gain advertisements. In the video, the young man claimed that the figure of 90 crore given by Jio Hotstar is not the number of concurrent views but the number of total views.
This means that if the same user streamed the match multiple times or if someone paused the match in the middle and restarted it, it was counted more than once. Concurrent views mean how many people were watching the live match at the same time. But Jio Hotstar did not share this number, which made people think that 90 crore people were watching the match simultaneously, which is practically impossible.
Technically, this claim of Jio is not wrong, but it is misleading. When people hear “90 crore views,” they understand it as “90 crore different people,” whereas in reality, it is the total number of views. If we talk about concurrent views, the record for the highest concurrent views in cricket history is held by the final match of India vs. Australia World Cup 2023, which was watched simultaneously by 5.9 crore people. This number is much less than 90 crore, which makes it clear that Jio stated the total number of views, not live viewers.
After watching the video, users have shared various reactions. A user wrote, Previously, Hotstar used to show live views… Jio ruined that by merging. Another user writes, This is false. If that is so, then explain why the view decreases during breaks.
