Mukesh Ambano’s Reliance Jio is said to be soon merged with another OTT giant, Disney+ Hotstar! As per a report in The Economic Times, sources familiar with this big change suggest that Reliance Industries is expected to keep Disney+ Hotstar as the only streaming platform after the merger with JioCinema. This comes after Reliance Industries and Disney India signed an agreement in February 2024, which claims to merge their media operations in India.
However, CCI (Cricket Club of India) later flagged concerns over the deal as the cricket broadcast rights will face major issues. Later on August 28th, CCI approved the merger of $8.5 billion between Reliance Industries and Disney’s India media platforms.
Not just that, Reliance Industries has also explored several possibilities for streaming platforms. Even, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance even considered integrating Disney+ Hotstar with JioCinema. While some other considerations included keeping these two platforms separate for two different use cases, sports and entertainment.
What’s Next?
Some sources reported to ET that Reliance decided to keep Disney+ Hotstar as the sole streaming platform even after the merger of the two OTT giants due to its “better back-end technology” to handle live streaming as well as ads, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters. Not only that, all sports events including the much-watched Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket will also be streamed on Disney+ Hotstar after the merger, Reuters suggested. Similar is the case with the Winter Olympics and Indian Super League football.
This will be one of the major mergers of two OTT platforms. However, it is still unclear if Disney+ Hotstar rebranded with the name of JioCinema. The complete merge is expected to be settled by January.
Also, we still suggest you wait for the official announcement by Reliance Industries and Disney+ Hotstar about the rumoured merger.
