JioHotstar, the video-streaming platform formed by merging Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema, has launched across the UK, Canada and Singapore to tap a broader global audience, including the South Asian diaspora.
The platform will add over 30,000 hours of fresh content annually, and the app will be available through the App Store and Google Play Store across the three markets, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
JioHotstar will air a slate of new originals, including Ali Baba Aur Chaalis Bhoot, Prince of Mollywood, Part Timers and The Court, along with new seasons of reality franchise Bigg Boss across six languages. Audiences will be able to vote live for every edition of Bigg Boss across Singapore, Canada and the UK. Canada viewers will also be able to watch Bigg Boss Hindi seven days ahead of its TV broadcast.
India Ka Top 1 Percent, a new format that tests contestants’ logic and reasoning, hosted by actor Anil Kapoor, will be aired in Canada and Singapore.
Viewers will also be able to access content from JioStar television channels, including Star Plus, Colors, Star Vijay, Asianet, Star Jalsha and Star Pravah, with before-TV access to shows in Singapore and Canada, including Anupama, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai, Seher Hone Ko Hai, Azhagae Azhagu. Audiences in the UK can watch shows simultaneously with their TV broadcast. The platform will offer subtitles and dubs across 12-plus Asian languages, including English, Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, and Marathi.
“Streaming has spent the last decade competing on the size of its catalogue. We believe the bigger opportunity now is to reimagine how audiences experience entertainment; not just what they watch, but how they discover, engage with and shape the experience in real time,” Amit Malhotra, head – international business, JioStar, said in the statement.
“South Asian audiences have a deep connection with Indian entertainment across languages, generations and households. At the same time, audiences globally are increasingly seeking stories and cultures beyond their own. We see an opportunity to build for this broader, underserved global audience- not simply export an Indian streaming service to new markets,” he added.
According to industry experts, local video streaming platforms focused on regional languages and niche target audiences are increasingly getting a substantial chunk of their revenue from overseas Indian viewers, in some cases up to 40%. Not only do these users in countries including the US, the UK, Canada and Malaysia have the ability to pay for subscriptions, they also relate deeply to stories that resonate with their cultural identities.
Platform executives said Indian viewers overseas have a strong preference for deeply rooted narratives, especially those centred on rural life and cultural traditions, while classic Bollywood and regional-language movies also remain a big draw. Several homegrown services like ZEE5 are already present abroad.
“Overseas audiences also tend to have higher average revenue per user (Arpu) due to more robust digital payment ecosystems in their countries,” Rajat Agrawal, chief operating officer of Ultra Media & Entertainment Group, had earlier told Mint.
Lata writes about the media and entertainment industry for Mint, focusing on everything from traditional film and TV to newer areas like video and audio streaming, including the business and regulatory aspects of both. A journalist for over a decade, she has extensively covered relatively underexplored aspects of what is seen as a glamorous business—from the death of single-screen cinemas in small towns to unreasonable star fees and demands eating into film production budgets and eventually inflating ticket rates. She was early to spot what are now established and ongoing trends such as the slowdown in the OTT business and the surge in the popularity of southern movies, which she continues to spotlight. A regular writer of in-depth, long-form features, her best-read work ranges from critical profiles of companies like Netflix, JioHotstar and Prime Video to takes on sexual harassment and mental health in the entertainment industry. She spends a lot of time watching content, particularly the old-school way in movie theatres, to make sure her writing is embedded in on-ground experience, since she believes the best stories often come from the travesties of directly engaging with and paying for the content that she writes on, and not from celebrity tweets, company releases or listings. A graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, she has also authored a book on the business of entertainment.
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