JioHotstar's content rides high on volume and reach

Hindustan Times

18 hours ago

MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) finale between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings on Tuesday has the digital streaming platform JioHotstar celebrating the 670 million 'peak views' of the match on the service, formed after the merger of Disney+Hotstar and JioCinema. Peak views indicate the cumulative views as the platform counts multiple sessions by the same users.
The viewership of IPL has been impressive and predictably so, since cricket is a religion in the country. JioHotstar saw remarkably high viewership even during the ICC Men's Champions Trophy 2025 as the platform leveraged its monopoly over cricket to draw audiences.
A couple of new reports may be changing that perception as JioHotstar's general entertainment content finds its way on most-watched OTT show lists on the back of the platform's immense reach among mobile users.
Data and analytics company Nielsen's 'Mobile Audience Measurement' report shows JioHotstar dominating the most-watched OTT content on mobile devices across movies, original series, and non-original series for the month of March. The insights are based on mobile OTT content viewership on six leading platforms -- Amazon Prime Video, JioHotstar, MX Player, Netflix, Sony LIV and Zee5.
Six of the top 10 most watched films on mobiles across these OTT apps in March were from JioHotstar, led by 'Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire' (Telugu), followed by Malayalam and Hindi films. Nielsen highlighted the rise in multilingual content on mobile OTT apps. JioHotstar agreed it was seeing strong cross-language viewership trends. Over 80% of its Malayalam content watch-time comes from non-Malayalam language consumers, and nearly a quarter of Hindi viewers' total watch-time is dedicated to Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam content. 'Language is not a barrier but a bridge. More than one-third of our Hollywood content viewership is consumed in Hindi. These are not just viewing habits; they're signals of a cultural shift toward inclusive storytelling,' JioHotstar said in response to HT's queries on the matter. Even among the top 10 original series, six belonged to JioHotstar, Nielsen said.
Ormax Media in its weekly report of May 26 to June 2 also listed four JioHotstar original series among the top five on streaming services, led by 'Criminal Justice: A Family Matter' with a viewership of 8.4 million.
The reach of JioHotstar is a no-brainer. Nina Elavia Jaipuria, former head of Colors and Nickelodeon at Viacom18 said, JioHotstar, backed by Reliance Industries, has the unmatched advantage of belonging to the biggest telecom company in the country. 'They have a ready user base which gives them easy discoverability and eyeballs,' she said.
JioHotstar said its success on mobile stems not just from reach, but from relevance. 'Today's users want instant, personalized, high-quality content, and we've built the platform around those needs. Our content feels local, experience feels seamless, and pricing feels accessible,' it said.
Post Star India and Viacom18 merger, JioHotstar has access to content from international studios like Disney, Fox, Marvel, Pixar, Paramount+ and NBCUniversal, network content from over 100 TV channels, live sports, and real-time news. The platform is popular for catch-up TV content too with television shows such as 'Anupama', 'Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai' and 'Gum Hai Kisi Ke Pyaar Mein' (from Star Plus) being among the most watched on mobile as per Nielsen.
Jaipuria said general entertainment channel's loyal audiences are still heavily invested in their daily soaps but with streaming they watch them at their own convenient time and screen. Catch-up TV works on OTTs as there's a fresh episode everyday unlike web series with limited 8-12 episodes in a season, she added. 'TV content remains one of our biggest audience magnets,' JioHotstar said.
Yet the platform isn't without its challenges. First, it will have to stem the inevitable subscriber churn after IPL which got over this week. Second, it isn't immune to the monetization challenges that the industry faces where both subscription and ad revenue are under pressure.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) on OTT platforms in India – much like pay TV – is among the lowest in the world. 'The Indian consumer is averse to paying for content, making it very difficult to increase subscription revenues,' said a broadcast sector executive. Except for big properties like the IPL, digital advertising revenue growth is muted too, facing intense competition from big tech, e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms taking a bigger slice of the pie.
How JioHotstar monetizes its expanded audience base remains to be seen.