JioHotstar, the streaming platform with more than 500 million monthly active users backed by the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, is expanding into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) through Starzplay, one of the region’s largest streaming services. The new foreign push comes after its debut in the UK, Canada and Singapore.
Under the partnership announced on Tuesday, JioHotstar will have a dedicated section in the Starzplay app and on its website, offering Indian movies, TV shows, originals and reality franchises in multiple languages. This is different from JioHotstar’s September launch in the UK, Canada and Singapore, where it replaced Hotstar and debuted as a stand-alone streaming service.
The expansion is part of Reliance’s push to build JioHotstar into a global streaming platform after establishing a massive audience in India. MENA has one of the world’s largest South Asian diaspora communities, giving JioHotstar a significant potential audience for its Indian films, TV shows and original programming.
As with its previous debut in the UK, Canada and Singapore, JioHotstar’s own sports offering in India will not be available in MENA. However, a plan that offers JioHotstar with Starzplay’s sports offerings, including cricket, is priced at AED 49.99 (about $13.60) a month. JioHotstar is also available through Starzplay’s Plus monthly plan at AED 34.99 (approximately $9.50).
With MENA’s vast Indian diaspora in focus, new JioHotstar originals will be released in the region concurrently with their release in India, with audio available in up to 10 languages. The catalog includes Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Bangla, among other languages, and includes shows like “Bigg Boss” and “Kaffee with Karan.” In addition, JioHotstar places special emphasis on Malayalam programming, due to the large Malayali population in the region.
JioHotstar was created after Reliance and Disney merged their Indian media businesses into an $8.5 billion joint venture in 2024. The service, which combined JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar, was launched in India in February last year.
Before JioHotstar’s launch, Hotstar was available in MENA. Disney Star has extended its distribution deal with Evision, e&’s media and entertainment arm, in 2024, making it the regional home of Hotstar Specials. Evision is also a major shareholder in Starzplay, where JioHotstar will now have its first dedicated streaming presence in the region.
Starzplay counts more than 2.3 million subscribers and has built a significant South Asian audience in part through its cricket offering.
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. Starzplay CEO Maaz Sheikh described bringing JioHotstar to the platform as a “strategic investment”.
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