MUMBAI: Will the joint venture between Reliance’s Viacom18 and Disney Star India result in the integration of their respective streaming platforms – JioCinema and Disney+Hotstar - into one? Speculation has been running rife, and various guesses have been made.
Initial predictions were that Disney+Hotstar would become a button on the JioCinema app. When Reliance acquired Viacom18, it had merged three streaming services under it - Voot, Voot Select, Voot Kids - into JioCinema. The reasoning was that Disney + Hotstar would meet the same fate, at that time.
Then media reports appeared stating that the two would stay as separate streaming services, one for sports and the other for entertainment.
Other pundits had followed up theorising that premium content would move to Disney+Hotstar and it would continue as an SVoD service, and JioCinema would end up being the AVOD product. More guesses followed that it would be the other way round, with JioCinema becoming the premium SVOD offering and Disney+Hotstar being the AVOD one.
Now a report in The Economic Times has stated that sources close to the matter told the newspaper that JioCinema’s fate has been decided. That Disney + Hotstar is going to be the sole streaming platform that will be left after the merger because of its superior technological backend and infrastructure.
The report also cites download numbers from the Google Play store for Disney+Hotstar which stood at 500 million and for JioCinema that were at a much lower 100 million. Disney+Hotstar, according to the ET report, had 335 million active users in Q4 2023, while JioCinema (according to Reliance’s annual report) had reached an average 225 million monthly users. Finally, Disney+Hotstar had 35.5 million paid subscribers of June 2024 much lower than the 61 million it had when it streamed the IPL and HBO shows.
Which way will Reliance and Disney+Hotstar swing? No confirmation or direction was given by either Reliance or Disney+Star India. Neither to ET or to any other publication.
But let’s look at how the mouse house is working with its three major services in the US, Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu. It offers Hulu with advertising at $10.99 a month; Hulu with no ads at $18.99 a month. Disney+ premium is offered at $13.99 a month ($139.90 per year); Disney+ standard at $9.99 ($99.90 a year) and Disney+ standard with ads at $5.99 a month. Then it offers different bundles. Disney+ and Hulu with ads at $10.99 a month. Disney+ and Hulu with no ads at 19.99 a month. The Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ trio basic bundle with ads is available at $16.99 a month whereas the same package with no ads can be bought for $26.99 a month. A Disney+, Hulu and Max bundle with ads is available for $16.99 a month; the same without ads costs $29.99 a month.
In March 2024, Disney+ started putting content from Hulu (which has a slight adult tilt to its programming and is geared for a general audience as compared to Disney+ which is more family oriented) onto its app with films and shows from the latter coming alongside the Disney+ offerings.
Disney+ had 150 million subscribers as of December 2023 and Hulu nearly 50 million. That pales compared to Netflix’s latest subscriber numbers at 282.5 million, but it shows that there are many ways that streamers can be targeted and sold to subscribers.
Yes, the Indian consumer is a totally different beast, many may argue and she/he prefers simplicity. But throw in a deal that gives them a financial advantage and they are quite likely to go for it.
So have we heard the last of what lies ahead for Disney+Hotstar and JioCinema?
Until the duo or one of the two or Uday Shankar comes on record, we, at indiantelevision.com believe we might still see some more permutations and combinations being considered before a final announcement is made.
