New Delhi, March 22 -- Reliance Industries Ltd-backed JioStar is betting on "unprecedented viewing" for the 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which kicks off on Saturday night, as the newly merged media entity brings both TV and digital rights under one umbrella.

The unified rights ownership marks a reset for IPL distribution, offering scale across platforms without internal competition, Kiran Mani, chief executive officer-digital, JioStar, said in an interview with Mint. "For the first time, we're not talking about digital versus linear TV. Both are growing and relevant. What excites me most is that we will activate a billion screens during IPL."

Last year, mobile and connected televisions (CTV) combined saw 600 million v...