Disney is currently going through the final steps to bring together its Indian business, Disney Star with Reliance Industries, which will result in Star and Viacom18 coming together for a joint venture.

This new company will become 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 deal is just going through the final approval steps, which is currently going through some speed bumps due to worries from regulators, the Competition Commission of India (CCI), about the new joint venture having control of too much cricket coverage, which is the most popular sport in India. Disney and Reliance have stated they are willing to shut channels across Hindi and regional markets to alleviate concerns.

According to a new report from the Economic Times India, should the two companies finalise their deal, they are considering will be merging Disney+ Hotstar into JioCinema into one single platform.

Even though Disney+ Hotstar has more subscribers, which is currently at around 35.5 million, though at one point at its peak, it was at over 61 million.

When the joint venture was announced, Disney confirmed that it has granted exclusive rights to distribute Disney films and productions in India, with a license to more than 30,000 Disney content assets. JioCinema’s content includes Paramount, HBO, and NBC Universal.

Merging the two streaming services will help save costs and create a single one-stop destination competing with YouTube and Netflix.

“Having two OTT platforms is pointless as it will result in more expenses,”

Disney has been having problems with Hotstar ever since it acquired it as part of 20th Century Fox, where it was able to get lots of subscribers while it was spending billions of dollars on cricket rights, but once they decided not to bid on the major cricket rights, millions of subscribers quit the service.

Ever since Disney announced this new joint venture in India, it has been reporting its Disney+ Hotstar subscribers slightly differently from its Disney+ Core subscribers, setting up a major split when the joint venture is finalised.  While this will result in Disney+ getting a significant drop in its global subscribers, the new joint venture will allow the main US division to get its money from India from its own licensing deal with the joint venture. 

Roger’s Take:  While Disney+ Hotstar is the bigger streaming platform, once it was confirmed that Disney had agreed to license its content to the joint venture, it seemed likely that this would be the case, rather than the other way around.  Disney is taking the backseat in running this new joint venture, with less risk, and while Disney+ might lose thirty million subscribers at once, technically, Disney will still be getting an income from a boosted income from the joint venture.

What do you think of the idea of Disney+ Hotstar merging into JioCinema? Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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