JioHotstar is branching out of India.
It's also reaching out to the UK, Canada and Singapore.
An international expansion is underway.
JioHotstar has announced its launch in the UK, Canada and Singapore, kicking off its international expansion with a catalogue of over 160,000 hours of content across more than 12 languages.
The OTT platform said it will offer premium Indian entertainment spanning television, films, regional programming, non-fiction, kids and anime, aiming for the South Asian diaspora as well as a wider global audience following and passionte about diverse stories and cultures. It's remodelling its viewing experience.
The platform will also draw in programming from JioStar television channels such as Star Plus, Colors, Star Vijay, Asianet, Star Jalsha and Star Pravah. The new service will offer Hotstar Originals – including series such as Asur, Pritam & Pedro, Special Ops, Criminal Justice, Heartbeat and Resort – alongside films including recent hits Dhurandhar, 12th Fail and Chhichhore. Anil Kapoor hosts a new game show format, India Ka Top 1 Percent, which will be available to audiences in Canada and Singapore.
“Streaming has spent the last decade competing on the size of its catalogue,” said Amit Malhotra, head – international business, JioStar. “We believe the bigger opportunity now is to reimagine how audiences experience entertainment; not just what they watch, but how they discover, engage with and shape the experience in real time. South Asian audiences have a deep connection with Indian entertainment across languages, generations and households. At the same time, audiences globally are increasingly seeking stories and cultures beyond their own. We see an opportunity to build for this broader, underserved global audience – not simply export an Indian streaming service to new markets.”
“As we expand internationally, our ambition is to show what becomes possible when scale, language, cultural diversity, personalisation and deeper audience participation are built into the streaming experience from day one,” Malhotra added.
JioHotstar has roped in more than 500 million monthly active users and built around 300,000 hours of programming.
