JioHotstar: JioStar clocks 280 million paid subscribers for JioHotstar, eyes billion-screen dominance

New Delhi: JioStar, the newly formed media giant born out of the merger between Viacom18 and Disney Star, has achieved 280 million paid subscribers within just three and a half months of launch, reaching a scale close to Netflix's global base, said Kevin Vaz, CEO - Entertainment, JioStar. The platform now boasts 503 million monthly active users, setting a new benchmark in the Indian digital entertainment landscape.Announcing the numbers during the earnings call, Vaz said JioStar generated Rs 9,497 crore in revenue with an EBITDA of Rs 266 crore for the period. Vaz added that the platform recorded a world record 61 million concurrent viewers during the India-New Zealand Champions Trophy final, four times the peak Super Bowl concurrency in the US.Despite macroeconomic headwinds, Vaz said JioStar has maintained a sharp focus on profitability and operational efficiency.Vaz affirmed that the future strategy will centre around aggressively growing viewership and engagement across TV, digital, and CTV (connected TV) screens to ensure sustained revenue expansion.Sharing more details, Vaz said that though JioStar is only five months old, it has already built India's largest integrated media and entertainment platform across three units: digital entertainment, sports, and TV broadcast. The merger was completed on November 14, 2024, and the JioHotstar platform officially launched on February 14, 2025, transferring a massive library of 320,000 hours of content.JioHotstar, Vaz said, also added 250 original and exclusive titles - the highest among competitors - and became the only platform globally to host all major American studios under one roof, including Marvel, HBO, Warner Bros., Disney, Peacock, and Paramount. The platform is designed to cater to entire families: Disney and Nickelodeon for children, Bigg Boss and Khatron Ke Khiladi for youth, serials like Anupamaa and Mangal Lakshmi for women, and premium sports for men.On the sports side, JioStar commands around 24 sports channels, holding rights to marquee properties such as ICC tournaments, IPL, BCCI matches, Pro Kabaddi League, Indian Super League, Premier League, and Wimbledon.In TV broadcasting, JioStar operates over 100 channels across 10 languages, reaching 358 million viewers daily. Overall, JioStar now reaches over 800 million people monthly across its businesses.Expanding beyond traditional entertainment, JioStar has also entered the live experience segment. Notable initiatives included streaming Coldplay's concert from Narendra Modi Stadium to millions across India, live feeds from Ayodhya and Chitrakoot during Mahashivratri and Ram Navami celebrations, and delivering multi-location arti experiences to viewers. Events like Ram Navami garnered 82 million views.Vaz pointed out that JioHotstar's library, now at 320,000 hours, is six times larger than Netflix's or Amazon's in India. The platform seamlessly migrated 500 million users onto the new JioHotstar app within three months, integrating the best features of legacy Viacom18 and Disney Hotstar platforms.On TV, JioStar leads in seven of eight major markets and dominates with eight to ten of the top 10 shows nationally. During the IPL season, the company added 1.5 million new pay-TV households in just 10 days, countering the narrative of pay-TV's decline in India. Vaz said the number is expected to rise to 3-5 million by the end of the tournament.Looking ahead, Vaz expressed confidence that by focusing on growing both digital and TV viewership, revenue growth would naturally follow. He reiterated that the merger of such magnitude was consummated in less than nine months and said that JioStar is now strongly positioned to capture the future of India's evolving entertainment and media consumption.