India’s JioHotstar takes partnership route for Middle East expansion

JioHotstar, the streaming platform with more than 500 million monthly active users backed by 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 overseas push comes after its debut in the U.K., Canada, and Singapore.

Under the partnership announced Tuesday, JioHotstar will have a dedicated section in Starzplay’s app and on its website, offering Indian films, TV shows, originals, and reality franchises across multiple languages. This is different from JioHotstar’s September launch in the U.K., Canada, and Singapore, where it replaced Hotstar and debuted as a standalone 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 sizable potential audience for its Indian films, television shows, and original programming.

As with its earlier debut in the UK, Canada, and Singapore, JioHotstar’s own sports offering in India will not be available in MENA. However, a plan bundling JioHotstar with Starzplay’s sports offering, 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 (around $9.50).

With MENA’s large Indian diaspora in focus, new JioHotstar originals will premiere in the region simultaneously with their release in India, with audio available in up to 10 languages. The catalog spans Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Bangla, among other languages, and includes shows such as Bigg Boss and Koffee with Karan. Additionally, JioHotstar is putting particular emphasis on Malayalam programming, given 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, launched in India in February last year.

Before JioHotstar’s launch, Hotstar was available in MENA. Disney Star expanded 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 sizable 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.”