Tech Tonic | Jio Star deal ends an era, to begin a complex yet brave new one
As someone pointed out, we are a generation that saw transition from music records to cassettes to CDs to MP3 players, to paying for streaming apps
I’ve had a more than cursory interest in this one, and a multitude of reasons for that. The deal between Star India and Reliance Jio, first announced in February of last year and culminated in November, has created what is essentially India’s latest media and entertainment company. Star’s supremacy in linear TV and over-the-top (OTT) streaming for long looked invincible. But when big money talks, in this case valuations seem to suggest worth of $8.5 billion, it does so without needing a megaphone to highlight its substance. We can always argue about who designed that JioHotstar logo, for it could’ve looked a lot better and is visually a downgrade to the Disney+ Hotstar or the JioCinema logos that it replaces.
There is some incredible synchronisation at play here. I’ll talk about sports channels first. The collective might of a 24 channel lineup for “Star Sports” standard definition and high definition channels in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. To achieve this, Jio effectively decided that their own Sports 18 set of channels should play the second fiddle, fill in regional language gaps and then effectively get rebranded under the Star Sports branding. Sports 18 1 and Sports 18 1 HD will become Star Sports 2 Hindi, while Sports 18 2 takes over the mantle of Star Sports 2 Telugu and Sports 18 3 becomes Star Sports 2 Tamil.
If the rate card that JioStar have submitted to regulators, there’s a likelihood that quite a few TV channels would be shut down (or very close to it; the process has begun) by the time you read this. And that is why I had said at the outset, that an interest if more than cursory. Tv channels from a very different era, ones many of you may remember as pivotal entertainment sources in our younger days, will no longer be around. VH1, MTV Beats and Comedy Central, to name a few. Beyond the nostalgia, there is a sense that JioStar is realigning channels to remove overlaps that Star’s existing channels and Viacom18’s existing channels may have.
It’ll be an optimisation of resources, cost and also likely make TV subscriptions a smidgen more affordable for cable TV or DTH subscribing homes. The logic here is, lesser channels means bouquets should also cost less.
Also Read: JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar merge to form new platform JioHotstar, announce new subscription plans
More than TV channels, the broader impact will be multi-pronged still. That includes streaming. Here are some numbers that have been officially shared by JioStar — the unification of Disney+Hotstar and JioCinema makes it a collective of 3,00,000 hours of entertainment content, more live sports coverage rights than any other streaming platform in India (ICC events, IPL, WPL, Premier League, to name a few), and more than 50 crore users who will all become paid subscribers because JioHotstar unlike JioCinema wouldn’t have a free tier.
Again, who made that JioHotstar logo?
I digress. The likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video (rightly so, their descent into asking for “rent” for new content, is atrocious) finally have the scale of competition that should be a worry. Local content is obviously a strength, but now, the supposedly “premium” user base which is assumed to also have an interest in international movies and TV shows, will find content from HBO, NBCUniversal, Peacock, Paramount and Warner Bros., within one app. Expect Netflix to invest even more in creating in-house content. What Amazon will do for Prime Video, I’d not like to hazard a guess.
I’d like to reference the official communication that I received from JioStar, and their focus towards building on this scale is clear. They talk about “ultra-HD 4K streaming, AI-powered insights, real-time stats overlays, multi-angle viewing and range of ‘culture’ and ‘special interest’ feeds.” The year, Disney+ Hotstar had begun some Premier League football matches in 4K on the app, as well as the Star 4K channel on Tata Play and Airtel Xstream DTH platforms. With the new entity retaining Hotstar’s technology foundation for the next chapter, expect more investments in AI at the foundation level.
Hopefully, higher frame rates for Live sports streaming?
I must touch upon how the JioStar era is likely to impact your cricket viewing. Impact may perhaps be a strong word — simplify, perhaps? Viacom18 which held the digital and TV rights for BCCI events for men’s and women’s T20, ODI and test cricket, will now bring that content to the widened Star Sports channels and the unified JioHotstar streaming platform. IPL too, which at one time, had different TV and digital streaming rights holders. One less headache for viewers, to remember which series is on which channel or app. This will also give JioStar the might to target a few digital only rights too, just to make things more difficult for Sony Pictures Networks India and Zee (their merger plans fell through a few months prior).
Also Read: Tech Tonic | The interesting contours of India’s smartphone market
If you thought scale and intent is restricted to the content you’ll consume from this new entity’s platforms, you’d be wrong. With Kiran Mani as CEO for Digital, Kevin Vaz as CEO for Broadcast Entertainment, and Sanjog Gupta as CEO for Sports) at the helm, JioStar is an aberration in terms of organisational structure too. Expect sharpened focus on the stuff that matters, such as when sports rights are up for bidding. And building content in regional languages, as the push for subscriptions isn’t likely to slow down.
As someone pointed out, we are the generation that saw a mass transition from music records to cassettes to CDs to MP3 players to paying for streaming services. Similarly, we saw the transition from black and white TVs to colour TV, terrestrial Doordarshan to satellite TV, from SD to HD to 4K, from cable TV to DTH to its coexistence with OTT. I have a feeling IPTV, or internet protocol television, is about to make a comeback. Be ready.
Vishal Mathur is the technology editor for HT. Tech Tonic is a weekly column that looks at the impact of personal technology on the way we live, and vice-versa. The views expressed are personal.
