Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is reportedly exploring a significant shift in its streaming strategy. According to The Economic Times, following the proposed merger with Star India’s Disney+ Hotstar, RIL may consolidate its streaming services into a single platform JioCinema. Despite Disney+ Hotstar boasting a larger user base, RIL plans to integrate its content into JioCinema, aiming to build a unified and more robust streaming platform.
Owned by Walt Disney’s Star India, Disney+ Hotstar, currently stands as one of India’s leading streaming services, with over 500 million downloads on the Google Play Store. However, operated by Viacom18 (under RIL’s control), JioCinema has garnered over 100 million downloads. Despite the disparity in their user bases, RIL aims to create a more formidable streaming service capable of competing with industry giants like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video as it views operating two separate platforms as costly and inefficient.
Forming a media conglomerate valued at approximately $8.5 billion, this development follows deals signed earlier this year between Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Walt Disney to merge Star India with Viacom18. The merger would result in a company with over 100 TV channels and two streaming services. However, RIL appears to favor streamlining operations by focusing on a single streaming platform, potentially consolidating the two services into one.
Notably, the merger is currently pending approval from regulatory bodies such as the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). However, RIL is reportedly prepared to close down some of its Hindi and regional TV channels to alleviate concerns about market dominance.
According to RIL’s 2023 annual report, JioCinema averaged 225 million monthly users. In comparison, Disney+ Hotstar recorded 333 million active users in the final quarter of 2023. However, Disney+ Hotstar has seen a significant drop in paid subscribers, falling from a peak of 61 million to 35.5 million as of June. This decline is partly attributed to the loss of key content rights, including the Indian Premier League (IPL) and HBO shows.
JioCinema, on the contrary, has experienced rapid growth, particularly after securing the digital rights to the IPL, which resulted in record-breaking viewership. However, if Disney+ Hotstar’s content is integrated with JioCinema, the platform could emerge as India’s largest streaming service, offering more than 125,000 hours of entertainment, sports, and Hollywood content. This unified platform would also feature key sports rights, including the IPL, along with content from major studios such as NBCUniversal, Disney, HBO, and Paramount Global.