Hostar and Jiocinema merge in Jiohotstar while Reliance tightens the support for streaming in India
Hostar and Jiocinema, two widely used video streaming applications in India, merged into Jiohotstar.
Jiostar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Star India belonging to Reliance, said on Friday that he had joined the vast library of content in Jiocinema in a revised version of the Disney Hostar platform.
The merged application will present Disney, Warner Bros, HBO, NBCuniversal and Paramount films and television shows, and aims to reach more than 500 million users in the country.
Consolidation follows Fusion of $ 8.5 billion with Indian Walt Disney assets Last year, which created a joint venture which controls 85% of India streaming market and half of the television audience.
“Entertainment is no longer a privilege, but a shared experience for everyone,” said Kiran Mani, Digital Director of Jiostar. The group said that Jiocinema’s existing subscribers would go to Jiohotstar once their current subscriptions are expiring.
The merger brings the most precious sports rights of India under a single platform, including cricket properties such as Indian Premier League and International Cricket Council, alongside the Premier League of Football and the FIFA World Cup.
Jiocinema’s application will be deleted after the expiration of existing customers’ subscriptions. Jiocinema subscribers will be able to transition “transparent” and set up their Jiohotstar subscriptions, said the company.
Consolidation reflects the difficulties to which foreign media groups encountered on the Indian market sensitive to prices. Netflix and Amazon Prime also had trouble increasing paid subscriptions despite intensive investments in local content. Amazon, who last year Acquired MX playerAggressively widens the new video streaming application with more than 100 original programs and films this year. MX Player was the third most popular video streaming application in December, according to Sensor Tower.
Jiohotstar will offer content in 19 languages and will produce 30,000 hours of television programming each year. Basic subscription plans start at 149 ₹ ($ 1.71).
The company brings together more than 100 television channels and nearly 300,000 hours of entertainment content.
