JioHotstar Goes Global: Reliance’s Streaming Giant Takes On the World Without Sports

JioHotstar has officially gone global. The streaming service from Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries launched September 2 in the UK, Canada, and Singapore — replacing the legacy Hotstar app in those markets and marking its first expansion beyond India’s borders.

The move is a big deal in streaming. JioHotstar commands over 500 million monthly active users in India, where it has essentially cornered the market on live cricket and regional entertainment. That audience came largely from the platform’s aggressive sports deals — the Indian Premier League, Women’s Premier League, Wimbledon, the US Open, even kabaddi and hockey leagues. Now, for its international debut, none of that is available.

The content deals issue is more than a technical footnote. In the UK, for example, rights to major cricket tournaments are split across multiple broadcasters, and JioHotstar would need to negotiate fresh agreements to bring them into the service. The same goes for football, tennis, and other live sports that typically drive subscriber spikes in international markets. Until those deals are in place, JioHotstar is asking people to subscribe for a library, not an event-driven experience — and that’s a fundamentally different pitch.

Instead, JioHotstar is launching with more than 160,000 hours of entertainment content: Indian films, TV originals, reality shows like Bigg Boss, and live TV channels under the Star banner including Star Plus, Colors, Star Vijay, Asianet, Star Jalsha, and Star Pravah. Content comes in 12 languages including English, Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, and Marathi, with dubs and translations available across the catalogue.

The sports question

The absence of live sports at launch is the headline caveat. JioStar said it is not offering sports in the three launch markets because of existing content deals — meaning rights are already locked up elsewhere — but did not rule out adding them later. That leaves a gap for anyone who signed up expecting the same all-in-one package they get in India.

It raises an interesting strategic question: is JioHotstar’s international pitch about South Asian diaspora content, or is it a broader experiment in selling Indian entertainment to audiences who have never watched a single Hindi-language soap? Amit Malhotra, JioStar’s Head of International Business, framed it as the latter: “South Asian audiences have a deep connection with Indian entertainment across languages, generations, and households. At the same time, audiences globally are increasingly seeking stories and cultures beyond their own. We see an opportunity to build for this broader, underserved global audience — not simply export an Indian streaming service to new markets.”

That’s a bold framing for a service whose biggest USP in India is cricket. If JioHotstar wants the global audience to stick around without sports, the entertainment catalogue has to do a lot of heavy lifting.

What you actually get

The content lineup at launch includes some familiar reality formats. Bigg Boss — the Indian adaptation of the Celebrity Big Brother franchise — is available across six languages, with live voting enabled in the UK, Canada, and Singapore. Canadian subscribers get access to the 24/7 live feed and can watch Bigg Boss Hindi seven days ahead of its TV broadcast.

The broader Star TV channel lineup is a significant draw for households that want live television alongside on-demand content. Star Plus, Colors, Star Vijay, Asianet, Star Jalsha, and Star Pravah collectively cover Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, and other regional languages — a range that few international streaming services attempt to offer in a single app. For diaspora families who want their regular TV channels in one place, that integration could be the difference between trying JioHotstar and sticking with a collection of regional apps or pirated streams.

Anil Kapoor, the Bollywood actor and TV host, is a familiar name in Indian homes and his show India Ka Top 1 Percent adds a reality-competition angle that goes beyond the soap operas and films that typically dominate Indian content exports. The format — contestants tested on logic and reasoning — has already built an audience in India and the question is whether it translates to international viewers who have no prior connection to the host or the cultural context.

There’s also India Ka Top 1 Percent, a new format hosted by Anil Kapoor that tests contestants on logic and reasoning, available to audiences in Canada and Singapore.

Pricing is straightforward and falls in line with what Hotstar charged before. In the UK, JioHotstar costs £19.99 quarterly or £69.99 annually. In Canada, it’s CA$19.99 quarterly and CA$49.99 annually. In Singapore, the quarterly rate is SG$29.98 and annual is SG$69.98.

For context, this launch comes at a moment when the global streaming landscape is shifting again. Netflix continues to dominate subscriber counts but faces pressure to keep growing in saturated markets. Disney+ has stabilized after its early growth surge and is leaning harder into local content. Amazon Prime Video bundles streaming with its retail ecosystem. Apple TV+ takes a quality-over-quantity approach. Against that backdrop, JioHotstar’s niche strategy — deep Indian entertainment catalog, no sports at launch — stands out as either a focused play or a risky gap, depending on your perspective.

The service is available through the App Store and Google Play Store on mobile devices, as well as on connected TVs.

Existing Hotstar users in those three markets will find their login credentials work on JioHotstar — but the old Hotstar app will stop working. As of September 2, Hotstar “ceases to exist” in the UK, Canada, and Singapore, with JioHotstar as its replacement.

How it stacks up against the streaming giants

JioHotstar is entering markets where Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ are already entrenched. Netflix has spent years building local-language libraries and commissioning regional originals. Prime Video has mixed sports rights with Indian content. Disney+ relies on its Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar IP alongside regional Disney Channel content.

JioHotstar’s differentiation is its deep well of Indian-language content across multiple regions and languages — a catalogue depth that none of the global streamers have matched for South Asian audiences. The question is whether that catalogue is enough to attract viewers who aren’t already seeking out Indian content. If Malhotra’s “broader global audience” thesis holds, JioHotstar could find an audience among viewers tired of the same Netflix originals rotation and curious about something different.

But the missing sports are a real limitation. In India, JioHotstar’s sports deals are what pull in casual viewers who then stay for the entertainment content. Without that hook internationally, the service has to convert on its entertainment value alone — and that’s a harder sell in markets where Netflix and Prime Video already have mindshare.

What happens next

JioHotstar is not launching in the United States as part of this initial rollout. The company said it plans to expand into additional overseas markets over time, but there’s no timeline yet for when that happens or which markets come next. A US launch would be the real test — it’s the largest streaming market in the world and the most competitive.

For now, the UK, Canada, and Singapore launch is a toe in the water. The service has the content library, the pricing is competitive, and the diaspora audience is real — estimates suggest more than 4 million people of Indian origin live across those three countries. But whether JioHotstar can grow beyond that base without sports is the billion-dollar question.

If you’re in one of the three launch markets and have been waiting for a service that actually reflects South Asian entertainment at scale, JioHotstar is now live. If you’re looking for something that competes with Netflix on global originals, this probably isn’t it — yet.