Hotstar and Jiocinema, two widespread video streaming apps in India, have smeared into Jiohotsar.
Jiostar, a joint venture between the reliance owned Viacom18 and Star India, said that on Friday Jiocinema’s large content library integrated it into a revised version of the Disney Hotstar platform.
The merged app live live in the early Friday local time in India will contain hundreds of thousands of local content, more than 100 TV channels as well as films and television programs from Disney, Warner Bros, HBO, NBCuniversal and Paramount. Jiohotsar strives to reach more than 500 million users in the country.
Jiohotar, which offers content in 19 languages and produces 30,000 hours of television programs annually, has subscription plans from 149 GBP (1.71 USD) for three months (advertising supplies) and 299 GBP ($ 3.45) per month for ad experiences. The ad-free level enables the simultaneous display via four screens at the same time, while the cheapest display model limits it to a screen.
The consolidation follows Reliance’s 8.5 billion US dollar fusion with Walt Disney’s Indian fortune Last year that a joint venture created that goes through control 85% of Indian streaming market and half of the television viewership.
“Entertainment is no longer a privilege, but a common experience for everyone,” said Kiran Mani, Digital Chief Executive by Jiostar. The group said existing Jiocinema subscribers would switch to Jiohotsstar after their current subscriptions.
The merger brings India’s most valuable sports rights under a platform, including Cricket properties such as the Indian Premier League and the International Cricket Council tournaments as well as the Football Prime Minister League and the FIFA World Championship.
The Jiocinema app expires after existing customers expired. Jiocinema subscribers can go on their Jiohotstar subscriptions “seamlessly” and set up their Jiohotar subscriptions, the company told Techcrunch.
The consolidation reflects the difficulties with which foreign media groups had confronted themselves in India’s significant market. Netflix and Amazon Prime also had trouble increasing paid subscriptions despite strong investments in local content.
Amazon, the last year acquired MX playerExpanded the new video streaming app aggressively with more than 100 original shows and films this year. According to the Sensor Tower, MX Player was the third most popular video streaming app in December behind Hotstar and Jiocinema.
