New Delhi: As Reliance Industries and Walt Disney partnership is all set to take place, an app developer has already grabbed the domain name ‘JioHotstar.com’. The Delhi-based app developer anticipated a merger between Reliance’s JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar and applied for the domain name. To his luck, it was available and he happily grabbed it.
Interestingly, the app developer has published a letter on JioHotstar.com, and appealed to Reliance Industries to fund his higher education at Cambridge University in exchange for the domain.
In the post, the app developer mentioned that when he came across news about Disney+ Hotstar getting a hit in terms of viewership, he thought Reliance could acquire it as it did with Saavn by rebranding it to JioSaavn. Thereafter, he checked if the domain JioHotstar was available and to his surprise, it was. He quickly applied and got the domain name.
What the message reads: “I am an app developer based in Delhi, currently working on my startup. In early 2023, while scrolling through social media, I came across a news piece stating that Disney+ Hotstar was losing daily active users after losing the IPL streaming license, and Disney is considering selling or merging Hotstar with an Indian competitor. This led me to hypothesize that, since Sony and Zee were pursuing their own merger, Viacom 18 (owned by Reliance) is the only major player with sufficient resources to acquire Disney+ Hotstar. This reminded me of when Jio acquired the music streaming service Saavn, they rebranded it to JioSaavn, and changed the domain from Saavn.com to JioSaavn.com. I thought, “If they acquire Hotstar, they might rename it to JioHotstar.com”.”
RIL, Walt Disney merger
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has published a detailed order approving the mega media assets merger of Reliance Industries and Walt Disney. Both the companies have voluntarily agreed to not bundle TV ad slots for BCCI, ICC and IPL cricketing rights till the end of existing rights. The parties also to sell seven TV channels, including Hungama and Super Hungama.
“The parties will not bundle together OTT ad slot sales for all three cricketing rights available with the parties i.e. IPL, ICC and BCCI for the balance tenure of the existing rights,” the 48-page order said.
