JioHotstar Goes Global Without Sports

JioHotstar is stepping out of India for the first time. Starting September second, the service will replace Hotstar in the UK, Canada and Singapore. At launch it will not include live sports such as the IPL or cricket matches. The company says existing deals keep sports off the table for now, but they might add them later.

The platform will offer more than 160,000 hours of movies, Indian TV originals and reality shows like Bigg Boss. Live TV channels from the Star family will also be available, including Star Plus, Colors, Star Vijay, Asianet, Star Jalsha and Star Pravah. Content is provided in twelve languages such as English, Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada and Marathi, with dubs and subtitles. In the UK the price is £19.99 for three months or £69.99 for a year. In Canada it is CA$19.99 quarterly or CA$49.99 yearly. In Singapore users pay SG$29.98 for three months or SG$69.98 for a year.

In India the same service already has more than 500 million monthly active users. There sports are a big draw, with the IPL, WPL and national cricket games streamed alongside English Premier League tennis and local games like kabaddi and hockey. The global launch deliberately leaves out those sports, making the offering different from what Indian viewers get.

The move comes after Reliance merged its media assets with Disney in 2024, creating an $8.5 billion joint venture that combined Hotstar and JioCinema into JioHotstar for the Indian market. The two services together held about eighty-five percent of India's streaming audience. Based on data from India's Ministry of External Affairs, the potential audience across the three new countries could exceed four million people, especially among the South Asian diaspora. A leader of the international business said the goal is to serve global fans who want Indian stories while also welcoming viewers interested in new cultures.