JioHotstar expands to MENA through STARZPLAY partnership

MUMBAI: JioHotstar is taking its streaming play beyond India, expanding into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) through a partnership with STARZPLAY.

The move follows JioHotstar’s international launches in the UK, Canada and Singapore, extending the platform’s overseas presence to a region with a large and diverse South Asian audience.

Unlike its standalone presence in India, JioHotstar will be offered as a dedicated streaming destination within the STARZPLAY app and website. Viewers in the region will therefore access the JioHotstar catalogue through STARZPLAY’s subscription plans.

The service will be available across markets including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan and Morocco, among others.

The offering will bring JioHotstar Originals alongside television programming from JioStar channels, films and popular reality franchises.

The content library will span up to 10 languages, including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Bangla. A substantial Malayalam catalogue is also expected to cater to the region’s sizeable Malayali audience.

The offering will include upcoming programming such as the new season of Koffee with Karan, along with the ongoing Bigg Boss seasons across six languages.

For audiences accustomed to consuming Indian entertainment outside India, the partnership gives JioHotstar a distribution route that combines its content library with STARZPLAY’s existing regional subscriber base.

JioHotstar will be available through STARZPLAY’s PLUS plan, priced at AED 34.99 per month.

The MAX plan, priced at AED 49.99 per month, will combine the full JioHotstar entertainment offering with STARZPLAY’s sports portfolio, including major sporting events.

The arrangement means JioHotstar does not need to establish a separate standalone streaming application in MENA. Instead, its content will sit within an established regional streaming ecosystem.

The partnership also provides a route for JioHotstar Originals to reach audiences in the region alongside their India releases, potentially shortening the gap between domestic and international availability.

The international expansion was marked by a high-profile launch moment in Dubai, where JioHotstar’s “Big Bang” was projected on the Burj Khalifa.

The visual spectacle brought the two streaming brands together as JioHotstar began its next phase of international expansion.

With MENA now added to its international footprint, JioHotstar has identified the UK, Canada, Singapore and MENA as overseas markets for its streaming service.

The company has also indicated that it is exploring technologies and features including AI-powered personalisation, conversational discovery, interactive entertainment and in-app commerce as it develops its streaming proposition.

The partnership gives JioHotstar access to an established streaming platform in the MENA region.

Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, STARZPLAY has 2.3 million subscribers and more than 18 million app downloads. Its existing catalogue includes Hollywood films, original productions, Arabic series, Turkish dramas, live sports and family entertainment.

For STARZPLAY, the addition of JioHotstar strengthens its South Asian entertainment proposition, while JioHotstar gains access to an existing regional distribution and subscription platform.

JioHotstar currently claims 500 million monthly active users and more than 300,000 hours of programming across 19 languages.

Its catalogue spans films, originals, live sports, live events, anime, children’s entertainment and television programming from more than 100 channels across the JioStar network.

The MENA launch adds another major overseas market to that ecosystem and gives the platform a larger international canvas for its Indian entertainment catalogue.

For JioHotstar, the strategy is increasingly moving beyond simply exporting Indian content. By combining local distribution partnerships with a broad multilingual catalogue, the platform is positioning its international business around the growing global demand for Indian entertainment.