Today that question is answered.
JioHotstars leaders say its slate is bigger and broader than any comparable service anywhere in the world.
New branding for JioHotstar, developed by Venturethree, has also been unveiled.
(L-R) Sanjog Gupta, Kiran Mani and Kevin Vaz are leading the newly named JioHotstarJioStar
Mani, Gupta and Vaz sat down with Deadline yesterday over Zoom to discuss the launch in-depth.
Our hope is it unfolds into something which is far bigger than that over a period of time.
A key bucket is access to premium entertainment.
‘Koffee with Karan’ host Karan Johar will be a star of JioHotstarRodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Gold House
Two-inch to 200-inch screens will light up across India.
How do you drive subscription models on it?
How do you drive advertising models on it?
How do you bring it all together so that we actually build a sustainable ecosystem?
DEADLINE:What do the two services bring from technological and content standpoints?
MANI:I do feel that we were Indias number one and number two OTT platforms.
This isnt restricted to a Hindi-speaking market or the southern India market or an eastern market.
Now we have enough content to entertain people across a broad range of entertainment portfolio.
KEVIN VAZ:This will be the one-stop shop for all this entertainment.
As Kiran mentioned, the question is how do we light up a billion screens?
Next is for the youth segment, the 15- to 21-year-olds.
In this country, our proposition for that is going with a proposition of reality TV, always on.
We also have one of the biggest talk shows in the country,Koffee with Karan.
Lastly, for the slightly older folk, well have 100 channels, which are from both companies.
They play mainstream soaps, which play on TV across nine languages.
Well have all of that coming on the JioHotstar platform before TV.
I dont think so that exists anywhere else.
DEADLINE:The sports package looks really comprehensive, with almost all cricket tournaments of note and other events.
How will you check that you consolidate that initial position of power?
While sport largely tends has been a lean-back experience, we want to deliver a compelling lean-in experience.
The final part here is is to make the service as intuitive as possible.
Were saying lets understand sports fans the best.
The high-end, premium content commissions have dropped and theres a desire for more traditional crime or romantic stories.
With so many producers and so few buyers, what is your message to the production community?
VAZ: The one thing for us is, wed be looking at content that is family-inclusive.
you gotta talk to more members in the house.
YouTube is essentially hub-based consumption, where 90% happens across 24 behavioral hubs such as music or DIY.
In our case, we cant stand for just one content hub.
The reality is thats a four-city market.
Its not a market that grows.
Now, will we cater to that?
But are we only going to cater to that?
So whats the state of play here?
Are you profitable on day one or when exactly do you expect profitability?
That has to change.
Our responsibility is, as the eyeballs grow, we make very sustainable business models.
One of the calls that we have taken is our content is always going to be subscriptions-plus-advertising.
Hence, you should pay me X.
If we can find the right value context, then we have economies of scale.
Its also extremely important that we dont stick to one model.
You have to make this break this down to micro businesses.
DEADLINE:Broadly, whats your biggest challenge in the Indian market?
MANI: This is an industry in which reputation size means nothing.
Resonance, relevance and making sure that we are part of everyday life means everything.
We dont take that lightly.
At our scale, we cant afford to fail, and I think its a fact to say that.
VAZ: We know this is a big sporting country, big on cricket.
MANI: We absolutely believe that we have the content that can enthrall the world.
If K-pop can travel and if Hollywood content can be global, why not Indian content?
We absolutely have global ambitions.
