JioHotstar, Reliance Industries' streaming platform with over 500 million monthly active users, is entering the Middle East and North Africa region through a partnership with Starzplay, one of the area's largest streaming services. The expansion marks a different approach from JioHotstar's earlier launches in the U.K., Canada, and Singapore, where it operated as a standalone service.
Under the partnership announced Tuesday, JioHotstar will occupy a dedicated section within Starzplay's app and website, offering Indian films, television shows, originals, and reality franchises in multiple languages. The service will not include JioHotstar's Indian sports offerings in MENA, but Starzplay will bundle JioHotstar with its own sports package, including cricket, at AED 49.99 (approximately $13.60) per month. JioHotstar alone costs AED 34.99 (around $9.50) through Starzplay's Plus plan.
Reliance created JioHotstar in February 2024 following a merger of its media business with Disney, forming an $8.5 billion joint venture. The combined service merged JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar into a single platform serving India's massive audience. The company now seeks to build JioHotstar into a global streaming service by targeting overseas markets.
MENA's substantial South Asian diaspora community provides JioHotstar with a ready audience for Indian-language content. New JioHotstar originals will premiere simultaneously in the region and India with audio available in up to 10 languages, including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Bangla. The platform plans to emphasize Malayalam programming given the large Malayali population in the region. The catalog includes shows such as "Bigg Boss" and "Koffee with Karan."
Before JioHotstar's emergence, Hotstar operated in MENA through a distribution deal between Disney Star and evision, the media and entertainment arm of e&. Evision holds a major stake in Starzplay, where JioHotstar now establishes its first dedicated regional streaming presence. Starzplay counts more than 2.3 million subscribers and has built substantial South Asian audience share partly through cricket offerings.
Financial terms for the partnership were not disclosed. Starzplay CEO Maaz Sheikh called the arrangement a "strategic investment."