New Delhi: JioHotstar lit up the Burj Khalifa to announce its launch in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It will be available through STARZPLAY, one of MENA’s major subscription streaming services.
This expansion comes just a month after JioHotstar launched in the UK, Canada and Singapore.
In MENA, JioHotstar will instead be available as a dedicated section within the STARZPLAY app and website. New JioHotstar Originals will stream alongside their release in India, with audio tracks available in up to 10 languages. The service will also carry films, television shows and reality franchises including Bigg Boss and the upcoming season of Koffee with Karan.
The catalogue will span Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla and other languages. JioHotstar is putting emphasis on Malayalam programming, reflecting the size of the Malayali audience in the region.
“The strong early response to JioHotstar across the UK, Canada and Singapore has reinforced our belief in the global opportunity for Indian entertainment. As we build JioHotstar into a truly global streaming platform, MENA is a crucial next market, with one of the world’s largest South Asian diaspora communities and a deep appetite for entertainment across languages,” Amit Malhotra, JioStar’s head of international business, said.
STARZPLAY CEO Maaz Sheikh said the partnership was also about giving viewers fewer places to search for the shows they want.
“Audiences should not have to navigate an increasingly fragmented market to find the entertainment that matters to them. Bringing JioHotstar to STARZPLAY is a strategic investment in that future, combining the strength of India’s storytelling with our understanding of this region and the audiences we serve,” Sheikh said.
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Beyond cricket
STARZPLAY already has a sizeable South Asian audience through cricket.
“Cricket has given STARZPLAY a strong and lasting relationship with South Asian audiences across the region. JioHotstar allows us to extend that relationship beyond the match and into the entertainment households return to every day. Our ambition is to make STARZPLAY the destination where every member of the family finds something they value,” Sheikh said.
STARZPLAY has 2.3 million subscribers and more than 18 million app downloads. JioHotstar says it has 500 million monthly active users and a library of more than 300,000 hours of programming across 19 languages.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)