Jio Cinema to merge with Disney+ Hotstar: What will happen to movies, shows and IPL streaming

For a while now we have been hearing that Jio Cinema is going to get merged with Disney+ Hotstar and the merger seems to be on its last leg now. There have been questions as to which platform will host all the content and which platform will be let go moving forward. Earlier it was expected that Jio Cinema would serve as the primary streaming platform. However, it seems like all the parties have come down to a conclusion now. As per the latest reports, Reliance Industries Ltd will keep Disney+ Hotstar as the main streaming platform after the merger of Star India and Viacom 18.

JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar merger
For those unaware, back in February, Reliance and Disney agreed on a $8.5 billion merger of their media assets to eventually create India’s biggest entertainment company with 120 TV channels and 2 streaming apps. Nita Ambani will serve as the chairperson of the merged entity while Uday Shankar from Bodhi Tree Systems will be the vice-chair.

Disney+ Hotstar will become the primary streaming platform
Earlier, RIL thought of multiple strategies and ways to merge. It even considered integrating Disney+ Hotstar into Jio Cinema or even operating two separate platforms. It planned to keep one for sports, such as IPL and FIFA, and the other one for entertainment.

After a lot of back and forth, the Reliance leadership finally decided that once the merger is formally in place, Disney+ Hotstar will absorb Jio Cinema to become to primary streaming platform for the combined entity, as per an ET report. Now, both Disney+ Hotstar and Jio Cinema employees have been informed about this final decision.

Where will movies, shows, and IPL be streamed?
Combined, both Jio Cinema and Disney+ Hotstar boast 200,000 hours of content. This also includes the premium broadcast content that from Star and Viacom18’s channels. Sports content such as IPL, ICC, BCCI, and Premier League are also available on the platform. Jio Cinema has the rights to stream IPL, Winter Olympics, and Indian Super League Football. On the other hand, Disney+ Hotstar has the rights to the International Cricket Council’s tournaments and Pro Kabaddi League. And finally, there’s Hollywood content Disney, HBO, NBC Universal, and Paramount Global.

Once the merger falls into place, all the sports-related streaming content will be available on Disney+ Hotstar, including IPL. This is the first time that we get an indication that Reliance is not planning on shutting down Disney+ Hotstar. Whether it will be rebranded? That is something we will have to wait and see. As per reports, the Reliance leadership took this decision as Disney+ Hotstar has better back-end technology for handling live content and serving targeted ads.

However, there’s still some clarity awaited on how things will fall into place. Especially how the entertainment content will play out, whether it will still be streamed on two different apps or one. Digit