Jio Star website goes live ahead of Reliance Jio and Disney+ Hotstar merger

The merger between Reliance Jio’s Viacom18 and Star India Private Limited is expected to be completed this week. Ahead of the expected completion, a new website has surfaced that could reportedly be home to the new OTT service created through the merger of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar – two popular streaming services in India. However, it has gone live with a different domain to the one that was previously widely believed to have been taken over and thus purchased by another party, sparking a debate on social media in recent weeks.

Jio Star OTT platform

It is speculated that the new OTT platform will be called Jio Star and so will the domain jiostar.com (via @yabhishekhd). It is believed that it will start offering streaming services to users from November 14, a day after the expected merger announcement. Although the website is already live, it only contains the text “Jio Star Coming Soon”. Content from both OTT platforms will likely be available in this one space once it goes live.

However, all live sporting events, including the popular Indian Premier League (IPL), will reportedly only be available on Disney’s Hotstar app. Earlier reports suggested that JioCinema was expected to be merged with Disney+ Hotstar given the latter’s better technical aspects.

Earlier, it was speculated that the JioHotstar domain would be the likely home of the new OTT platform. Ahead of the merger, a Delhi-based app developer bought the domain and asked for a sum of money to fund their studies if the companies wanted to own it. A debate ensued on social media and it was subsequently purchased by two Dubai residents in the following days. In a recent development, the current owners have announced the decision to give away the domain to Reliance Jio for free.

However, the appearance of the new Jio Star website suggests that the streaming platform may have adopted a different domain altogether.