Following the merger, RIL is considering a plan to combine Disney+ Hotstar with JioCinema, despite the former having higher downloads, said one of the persons.
Disney+ Hotstar is Walt Disney-owned Star India’s streaming service, while JioCinema is owned by RIL-controlled Viacom 18.
According to Google Play Store data, Disney+ Hotstar had over 500 million downloads while JioCinema had over 100 million downloads.
In February, RIL and Walt Disney signed agreements to combine Star and Viacom18 to create an $8.5 billion media giant that would have had over 100 channels and two streaming platforms.
Of late, Viacom18 has been beefing up its leadership team at JioCinema. The company has appointed Prime Video India country director Sushant Sreeram and YouTube India head Ishan Chatterjee as chief marketing officer and chief revenue officer, respectively, at JioCinema.As reported by ET earlier, the company is also willing to shut channels across Hindi and regional markets to alleviate concerns of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) about the market dominance of the proposed Star-Viacom18 merged entity.The companies are awaiting CCI and National Company Law Tribunals (NCLT) approvals.
According to RIL’s annual report, JioCinema had an average monthly reach of 225 million users. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Disney+ Hotstar had 333 million monthly active users, as per Sensor Tower.
Disney+ Hotstar had 35.5 million paid subscribers in June, which is significantly lower than the 61 million that the platform used to enjoy at its peak when it also had content such as the Indian Premier League (IPL) and HBO.
Earlier, RIL-controlled Viacom18 had merged its OTT platforms under the Voot brand with JioCinema. Viacom18 had three OTT platforms–Voot, Voot Select and Voot Kids.
Prior to that, JioCinema was transferred to Viacom18 through an NCLT sanctioned scheme of arrangement that also involved RIL and Bodhi Tree Systems infusing Rs 15,145 crore in Viacom18.
Both Disney and RIL declined to comment.
A second person aware of the development said having a single OTT platform will help in saving costs and building a one-stop OTT destination that will give strong competition to YouTube in the advertising video on demand (AVOD) segment and Netflix and Prime Video in the subscription VOD segment.
“Having two OTT platforms is pointless as it will result in more expenses,” the person added.
Once Disney+ Hotstar merges with JioCinema, the latter will become the top streaming app in the country with the largest repository of entertainment, sports, and Hollywood content, comprising over 125,000 hours.
It will also have key cricket rights, including the Indian Premier League (IPL), as well as content from Disney, HBO, NBCUniversal and Paramount Global.
“Record viewership of the Indian Premier League on JioCinema underscored our ability to scale up audiences on our digital platform in a short time,” RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani had said in the company’s annual report.
As reported by ET recently, Disney+, Hotstar, and JioCinema have been valued higher than their parent companies’ linear TV businesses. Disney+ Hotstar was valued at Rs 16,040 crore, while JioCinema was transferred to a Viacom 18 subsidiary for a consideration of Rs 24,186 crore.
