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With the 2025–26 season of the Indian Super League (ISL) finally kicking off on February 14 after a five-month delay, advertisers have a fresh avenue to reach audiences. The truncated 91-match tournament will run for three months, streaming on Dream Sports' FanCode and broadcasting on Sony Ten 2.
The timing, however, is far from ideal. ISL is currently competing for attention with the ICC Men's T20 World Cup and, in a month’s time, will find itself up against the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Yet, for FanCode co-founder Yannick Colaco, the pitch to advertisers is straightforward. ISL may not have cricket’s 700 million reach, but it has around 150 million followers, and in certain pockets, engagement rivals or even exceeds cricket.
“You may not get the scale of cricket or the IPL, but you get highly targeted, paying fans with strong engagement and high recall. It’s a different audience — more focused, more invested — and that delivers real impact. Take Kerala Blasters: their local social media page alone has around 4 million followers. That’s the depth of fandom we’re talking about,” he says.
Colaco acknowledges that clashes with an event as large as the IPL will have some impact. But he believes core club fans will prioritise their teams.
“For core sports fans, their chosen sport may be second to cricket nationally, but for them it comes first. Our job is to work closely with leagues and clubs to minimise overlaps where possible and ensure fans can access matches easily when clashes do happen.”
A season under strain
The 12th edition of the league is unfolding under unusual circumstances. Just days before kickoff, members of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Executive Committee were voting on whether to retain the 14-team format or expand it to 15 by including Churchill Brothers.
The February 14 start date came only after intervention from the Sports Ministry, keen that delays not derail India’s broader sporting ambitions, including its bid to host the 2036 Olympics.
The uncertainty stemmed from the expiry of the Master Rights Agreement between AIFF and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL), the Reliance-backed entity that had launched and operated the ISL since 2014.
With the agreement lapsing in December 2025, doubts loomed over whether and when the season would begin. Even after a start date was finalised, stadium readiness and fixture planning posed challenges, with the interim schedule announced barely a week before kickoff.
The revamped format reflects the compressed timeline. The traditional home-and-away system and playoffs have been scrapped for this cycle. Each of the 14 teams will play 13 matches in a single-leg round-robin format, with the table-topper after 91 matches crowned champion — no final.
FanCode acquired the digital rights for Rs 8.62 crore just two weeks before the season began and sub-licensed linear coverage to Sony on the day of the inaugural match, given it does not operate television channels.
Selling depth in a short window
With limited time to build commercial momentum, the platform has adopted an integrated sales strategy. While FanCode delivers the streaming experience, AIFF is driving on-ground execution. Together, they are offering brands end-to-end packages that combine digital sponsorship with perimeter boards, club partnerships and fan activations.
For now, the focus is on co-presenting and associate sponsorships. As the tournament progresses, FanCode plans to open up spot advertising and regional inventory across its Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali and Tamil feeds.
Colaco concedes that advertiser interest would have been stronger with a longer runway.
“The biggest challenge is timing. Most major tournaments have been in the market for six months. That said, we’ve factored this in and are working closely with brands to craft the right partnerships and deliver meaningful opportunities,” he says.
A digital-first play
A large share of ISL’s 150 million followers is digital-first and that remains central to how this season is being positioned. The strategy goes beyond streaming matches. It includes flexible pricing — a season pass at Rs 299, a team pass at Rs 149 and a match pass at Rs 25 — AI-curated real-time highlights, multilingual feeds and club-led storytelling.
Community activation has been the immediate priority. Soon after acquiring rights, FanCode met all 14 clubs to understand their fan ecosystems. It is now collaborating with teams, creators and influencers to produce snackable, high-engagement content tailored for digital audiences.
One initiative, VoxUp, will see each club nominate a superfan who becomes its content creator — travelling with the team, offering behind-the-scenes access and presenting the club through a supporter’s lens.
Regional access is another lever. With commentary in multiple Indian languages, the league is targeting both metro and non-metro audiences. Unlike Formula 1, which skews metro, or cricket, which cuts across the country, Indian football sits somewhere in between, drawing audiences from both urban and emerging markets.
Colaco believes ISL will deepen engagement among existing football fans while attracting new ones into FanCode’s broader ecosystem, which already includes global football properties.
Building the platform
Launched in 2019, FanCode introduced advertising only two years ago, after first focusing on building its subscription-led direct-to-consumer base. Even today, ads are limited to scheduled breaks to protect user experience. Advertising currently contributes 10–15% of revenue.
“Going forward, we see significant headroom in both subscription and advertising. The ad component will likely grow faster in percentage terms due to the smaller base, but we will always remain subscription-first and direct-to-consumer at our core,” says Colaco.
About a year ago, the company exited merchandising to sharpen its focus on content. “There was a lot to build on the content side, and spreading ourselves too thin wasn’t the right move. Since then, we’ve doubled down on content,” he says.
The platform offers several sports, including motor sports, tennis, golf, etc. However, cricket continues to account for roughly half its coverage, though the platform does not carry marquee events.
More than half of its users today come organically through word of mouth. With over 50 million downloads and 200 million users, the broader strategy remains consistent across all the sports: acquire the fan, then deepen engagement.
Rather than chasing scale alone, FanCode is betting on depth. It is building layered ecosystems around each sport. In football’s case, that means investing in domestic properties like ISL, amplifying club narratives and activating communities.
Today, FanCode is available across 11 operating systems — including connected TV platforms such as Samsung, LG and Google TV — alongside mobile and web. Connected TV consumption accounts for 15–20% of viewership, depending on the event.
“The consumer decides the screen. We ensure consistency across all of them,” he says.
The platform has also experimented with linear distribution through a VAS channel, Tata Play FanCode Sports, in partnership with Tata Play.
International foray
In the last month, the platform has launched in neighbouring markets such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. It is also evaluating opportunities across Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific region. Its strategy internationally is partnership-led.
“We look to work with strong local players — telcos or platforms with large consumer bases — who bring market expertise and distribution strength,” he shares.
