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, live from the beginning of Local India on Friday, will showcase hundreds of thousands of hours of local content, more than 100 television channels as well as Disney TV films and television shows , Warner Bros, HBO, NBCUNIVERSAL and PARAMOUNT. Jiohotstar aims to reach more than 500 million users in the country.
Jiohotstar, which offers content in 19 languages and produces 30,000 hours of television programming per year, offers subscription plans from 149 ₹ ($ 1.71) for three months (supported by advertising) and 299 ₹ ( $ 3.45) per month for an advertising experience. The level without advertising allows simultaneous visualization on four screens at a time, while the cheapest model funded by advertising limits it to a screen.
Consolidation follows the merger of $ 8.5 billion in reliance with Indian assets of Walt Disney last year, which created a joint venture which controls approximately 85% of the streaming market in India 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 “in a transparent” and configure their Jiohotstar subscriptions, the company told Techcrunch.
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, which acquired MX Player last year, aggressively 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, just behind Hostar and Jiocinema, according to Sensor Tower.
