Reliance Industries is mulling over merging Disney+ Hotstar with JioCinema after it gets regulatory nod for the proposed Star India-Viacom18 merger
The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate is keen on merging the two OTT platforms to cut costs and expand JioCinema’s content offerings
Disney and Reliance have also proposed to shut down some Hindi and regional channels of Star India and Viacom18 to allay CCI’s concerns about the market dominance of the merged entity
Reliance Industries is mulling to have only one over-the-top (OTT) platform, JioCinema, after it wraps up merger with Star and Viacom18.
As per ET’s report, citing sources, The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate plans to merge Disney+ Hotstar with JioCinema after getting regulatory nod for the proposed merger.
Reliance Industries is keen on merging the two OTT platforms to cut costs and expand JioCinema’s content offerings.
In its annual report 2023-2 4, Reliance Industries said that JioCinema had 225 Mn average monthly active users while Disney+ Hotstar had 333 Mn. Meanwhile, data from Google Play Store showed that Disney+ Hotstar had more than 500 Mn downloads, significantly higher than JioCinema’s 100 Mn.
Further, Disney and Reliance Industries have also proposed to shut down some of the Hindi and regional channels of Star India and Viacom18 to allay concerns of India’s antitrust watchdog about the market dominance of the proposed Star-Viacom18 merged entity.
(The story will be updated soon)
