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Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s JioStar plans to remove its content from YouTube to curb subscriber migration from television to free online streaming. JioStar was introduced after the mega-merger of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. The move may be implemented from May 1, ET reported, citing sources. After the merger, JioStar decided to place its content behind a paywall, including sports.
Ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL), JioStar is reportedly in talks with telecom companies Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) to combine their data plans with subscriptions to JioHotstar, according to a separate report from ET. JioStar aims to engage over 1 billion viewers through both television and digital platforms during the upcoming major cricket event.
In 2024, JioCinema witnessed a watch time of over 35,000 crore minutes during the cricket extravaganza IPL 2024, with the viewers growing over 38 percent.
According to Reliance Industries Limited’s annual report for the fiscal year 2024, Disney+ Hotstar had 35.5 million paid subscribers as of June 2024. In contrast, JioCinema emerged as the fastest-growing subscription-based OTT platform by September 2024, boasting more than 16 million paid subscribers. Following the merger of the two media companies, JioStar has been implementing various measures to optimise its business operations.
Earlier, it was reported that the company has initiated mass layoff to end the overlapping roles. The restructuring exercise is likely to continue till June this year, in which 1,100 employees will lose their jobs.
JioHotstar is actively working to attract startups and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to its platform for advertising ahead of the IPL 2025. The platform provides advertising packages ranging from INR 15 lakh to INR 1.5 crore.
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