Disney+ Hotstar Teasing Merger With JioCinema On Valentine’s Day

Last year, Disney announced it would be merging its Indian business, Star India, which includes the streaming service, Disney+ Hotstar, with Reliance Industries Limited and Viacom 18, to create a brand new joint venture called Star India.

With the deal recently getting the appropriate government approval, Disney will own 36.84% of the new company, which will be one of the leading TV and digital streaming platforms for entertainment and sports content in India, bringing together iconic media assets across entertainment (e.g. Colors, StarPlus, StarGOLD) and sports (e.g. Star Sports and Sports18) including access to highly anticipated events across television and digital platforms through JioCinema and Hotstar. The new streaming service will have over 750 million viewers across India and will also cater to the Indian diaspora across the world.

As part of the deal, Star India will have exclusive rights to distribute Disney films and productions in India, with a license to more than 30,000 Disney content assets, providing a full suite of entertainment options for the Indian consumer.

In the most recent Disney quarterly financial results, Disney+ Hotstar subscribers were no longer reported or included in the total number of global Disney+ subscriber numbers. 

There have also been some changes within the Disney+ Hotstar app, with a number of JioCinema original programs being added, along with some new hubs.  There has also been more changes to the Disney+ Hotstar interface over the past week, highlighting some big changes are on the way.

Some JioCinema customers are also being informed that their subscriptions are being cancelled, indicating that things are about to change.

Plus, the Star India social media accounts briefly rebranded to JioStar, which could indicate the new merged streaming service name.  However, the change was quickly reverted back, possibly because it was done too early.  There has been lots of speculation about the name of the new joint streaming service, JioStar or JioHotstar. 

This week, we’ve seen JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar start to drum up publicity for the impending merger. Social media posts tease the two platforms coming together for Valentine’s Day, making it look like the official announcement of the new merged JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar is going to happen on Valentine’s Day.

One of the social media posts stated:

‘What happens when two worlds of entertainment merge in the universe?’

Here’s an example of some of the posts the official Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema social media accounts have been posting:

With the launch of the new JioHotstar/JioStar streaming service, it’s unclear what will happen outside of India since Hotstar remains a stand-alone streaming service in many countries, including the United Kingdom, rather than being incorporated into Disney+ globally. Also, in the United States, while the Hotstar stand-alone app was closed down and the content moved over to Hulu, interestingly, none of the Hotstar content is available within Hulu On Disney+.

Roger’s Take: Merging JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar will undoubtedly create a mega streaming service for India. It’s a little disappointing that Disney never seems to fully embrace adding its Indian content to Disney+ globally, highlighting that possibly Disney was looking to make this change for a while. I also wonder what this merger will mean for the “Star” brand in the long run, especially with the Disney+ Hotstar brand in other countries outside India, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. I’ve thought for a long time that Disney might rebrand Star on Disney+ to Hulu to streamline its branding.  Disney+ Hotstar doesn’t look like it’s going to be around in its current format much longer, but it won’t be too long until we know more.  

What do you think of a merged JioHotstar/JioStar streaming service? Let me know on social media!