Jio Star Website Goes Live Ahead of Anticipated Merger of Reliance Jio and Disney+ Hotstar

The merger between Reliance Jio's Viacom18 and Star India Private Limited is expected to reach its conclusion this week. Ahead of the anticipated completion, a new website has surfaced which could allegedly be the home of the new OTT service formed courtesy of the amalgamation of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar — two popular streaming services in India. However, it has gone live with a different domain than the one which was previously widely believed to be adopted and thus purchased by another party which spurred a debate on social media in recent weeks.

Jio Star OTT Platform

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

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

Previously, the JioHotstar domain was speculated to be the likely home of the new OTT platform. In anticipation of the merger, a Delhi-based app developer purchased the domain and requested that they be paid a sum of money to fund their studies if the companies wished to own it. A debate spurred on social media and in subsequent days, it was then purchased by two Dubai-based residents. In a recent development, the current owners announced the decision to give away the domain to Reliance Jio free of cost.

However, the surfacing of the new Jio Star website suggests that the streaming platform might have adopted another domain altogether.