Reliance Industries is reportedly considering consolidating its streaming services under a single platform, JioCinema. RIL will control the merged Star-Viacom18 entity once it receives regulatory approvals.
This decision is viewed as an effort to consolidate content and resources into a single, more robust platform, streamlining its services.
Disney+ Hotstar is owned by Walt Disney’s Star India and boasts of over 500 million downloads. JioCinema, which is part of RIL-controlled Viacom18, has over 100 million downloads.
Despite Disney+ Hotstar having more downloads than JioCinema, RIL is exploring the possibility of integrating Disney+ Hotstar with JioCinema post-merger.
This anticipated consolidation will reduce operational costs and enhance efficiency by not running two separate streaming services. The unified platform will be positioned in a better way in order to compete with other global platforms.
This development comes after RIL and Walt Disney signed a deal earlier this year to merge Star India and Viacom18, forming a media conglomerate valued at around $8.5 billion.
The merged entity would control over 100 TV channels and two OTT platforms, but RIL appears to favour focusing on just one platform—JioCinema.
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