Breaking Reliance and Disney merger approved by CCI

[Rajpatil98]

Being a fan of a particular network or hating another is one thing but some people need to talk sense. Even if they retain the Hotstar name, it wont be fully owned by Disney. In the end, Ambani holds the majority shares, so the brand will automatically lean more towards Reliance than Disney.

JioCinema is one of the most uninspired OTT names i have ever heard. It honestly gives off a cheap vibe, much like Dangal and other FTA channels. There is no premium feel to that name. It seems like when they were naming JioCinema, there was no one creative enough to come up with a good name. Voot was 100% better in comparison.

Secondly, Hotstar is a well established brand, existing even before Jio was born. Hotstar has built goodwill with its customers over time, regardless of whether they incurred losses or not. It has a strong image, which JioCinema has never had. In fact, JioCinema doesnt even have as much goodwill as Voot did.

Even when Disney acquired Hotstar, they kept the Hotstar name. So what is JioCinema in comparison to that?? I understand that Reliance doesnt want the Disney name in their OTT brand because, in the distant future, Disney might exit, and SIPL could be solely owned by Reliance. In that case, they could always retain the Hotstar name. So, I believe it would be better to stick with Hotstar or perhaps Jio Hotstar. Either way, if they retain just Hotstar it would be a good decision as it would bring back the familiar feel for its customers.

Lastly, they should merge all content into Hotstar instead of JioCinema because Hotstar’s UI is smooth and the app is much easier to use compared to other OTT apps.

 

[Uber]

When merge will happen?

 

[Dolphine98]

Being a fan of a particular network or hating another is one thing but some people need to talk sense. Even if they retain the Hotstar name, it wont be fully owned by Disney. In the end, Ambani holds the majority shares, so the brand will automatically lean more towards Reliance than Disney.

JioCinema is one of the most uninspired OTT names i have ever heard. It honestly gives off a cheap vibe, much like Dangal and other FTA channels. There is no premium feel to that name. It seems like when they were naming JioCinema, there was no one creative enough to come up with a good name. Voot was 100% better in comparison.

Secondly, Hotstar is a well established brand, existing even before Jio was born. Hotstar has built goodwill with its customers over time, regardless of whether they incurred losses or not. It has a strong image, which JioCinema has never had. In fact, JioCinema doesnt even have as much goodwill as Voot did.

Even when Disney acquired Hotstar, they kept the Hotstar name. So what is JioCinema in comparison to that?? I understand that Reliance doesnt want the Disney name in their OTT brand because, in the distant future, Disney might exit, and SIPL could be solely owned by Reliance. In that case, they could always retain the Hotstar name. So, I believe it would be better to stick with Hotstar or perhaps Jio Hotstar. Either way, if they retain just Hotstar it would be a good decision as it would bring back the familiar feel for its customers.

Lastly, they should merge all content into Hotstar instead of JioCinema because Hotstar’s UI is smooth and the app is much easier to use compared to other OTT apps.

They have no creative sense at all. At first their slogan was "Dekhta jaa India" and now its "Sab yahaan aur kahaan". Seriously it sounds so cheap and tacky for an app whom they themselves call premium.


This cheap brand name should and must be eradicated. Dont we have any standards ? Like what a shame its gonna be if we have a global streaming service whose brand name is JioCinema.

 

[JollyLNB]

It honestly gives off a cheap vibe, much like Dangal and other FTA channels.

Even Dangal sounds premium in comparison, given what a massive channel it has become at a national scale.

At first their slogan was "Dekhta jaa India" and now its "Sab yahaan aur kahaan". Seriously it sounds so cheap and tacky for an app whom they themselves call premium.

A better comparison for such slogans would be local Bhojpuri channels like Raapchik, or for that matter Ullu.

 

[dino29]

So Airtel and Vi are going to ditch new OTT with Jio suffix in its name.

No such thing will happen buddy and this is not how companies think.....going by this logic u won't see music rights of any movie produced by Star Studios or Viacom18/Jio Studios going to Zee Music as their parent companies compete in Film Studio + TV Channels business or Tata Play having Jio Cinema on its Binge OTT Platform as their parent companies r competitors in broadband segment or Jio providing apps like Zee5, Sony Liv etc. with its mobile / brooadband plans just bcoz these r rival platforms of Jio Cinema and above all a hindi movie channel ad from say Sony wont be shown on Star Plus bcoz they r rivals ......... Reality is that if any company has a branding under which they operate in different business then there is no truth in the fact that it will not have tie ups with some business of another company even though they maybe rivals in another business.....only thing which won't happen is that X company promoting in say telecom business promoting its rival's telecom business in any manner, otherwise other tie up across various different segments always continue

Lastly this Airtel, Jio rivalry which earlier seemed like very intense has now eased down and become more like a healthy competition so it is not like both companies won't have any tie ups across their diverse businesses....Sunil Mittal Ji even was invited to wedding of Anant Ambani

 

[DisneyStarViacomMergerFan]

When merge will happen?

Within Diwali

 

[StoriesWithPK]

JioCinema may look cheap and anti creative to some of you but the target audience doesn't care.

This is exactly why Jio keeps winning. They target bottom of the pyramid. They don't have to be known as a Premium Brand like Hotstar.

I've been a Hotstar subscriber ever since they introduced same day programming of HBO in India. No one in my friend circle watched Hotstar during that time and felt subscribing to Hotstar was pointless.

Ambani knows what works and that is exactly why JioCinema makes sense for the type of audience they're targeting and the type of programming they're producing.

 

[Raju lal]

Reliance allowed 'Viacom' branding even Paramount throttled their shares and still using 'Viacom 18' name after paramount said good bye from the company as well as closed Viacom internationally. Such a merciful person Sri. Ambani
Here Reliance is becoming the majority owner in Star. In future they may get the full ownership. Star & Hotstar is popular and neutral brand name. Slowly leaving TV 18, Network 18, Viacom 18 such engagements Reliance can convert 'Star' as their media & entertainment arm with Bodhi & Disney as their minor partners. So I hope Reliance will choose Hotstar over Jio Cinema. And if they want to introduce 'Jio' branding in their OTT, there is option to replace Disney+ prefix with 'Jio'. And Disney will not object this as they also want to remove Hotstar from Disney+ balance sheet.

 

[dino29]

JioCinema may look cheap and anti creative to some of you but the target audience doesn't care.

This is exactly why Jio keeps winning. They target bottom of the pyramid. They don't have to be known as a Premium Brand like Hotstar.

I've been a Hotstar subscriber ever since they introduced same day programming of HBO in India. No one in my friend circle watched Hotstar during that time and felt subscribing to Hotstar was pointless.

Ambani knows what works and that is exactly why JioCinema makes sense for the type of audience they're targeting and the type of programming they're producing.

Buddy do u think HBO , Warner Bros, Showtime, Paramount+, Universal Pictures / TV content available on Jio Cinema caters to "bottom pyramid"?

Reality is that they too cater to mass + niche audience like other OTT platforms do hence u r wrong in saying that "it does not matter if their interface / streaming experience is laggy or graphics r not so attractive"...... Also even apps MXPlayer, Zee5 or even regional content apps which cater to mainly mass audience provide better navigation + streaming experience as this is a basic thing required for users to have a good viewing experience and companies cannot overlook the same.

Also ur argument about ur friends not opting for Hotstar subscription even though they had HBO content is not valid example to showcase that having niche content does not yield success for OTT platforms. ...... Fact is that both mass + niche audience oriented content is needed for an OTT platform to grow both in subscriber base + revenues.....The AVoD model largely caters to mass audience where giving content access for free while airing ads with content helps attract mass audience while keeping niche content under paywall helps expand paid subscriber base & subscription revenue as affluent audience base opts for it

Sorry to say this but despite Disney+Hotstar being overall lot better than Jio Cinema u used to criticise them for smallest of shortcoming while u r simply trying to sideline negative points of Jio Cinema by saying these do not matter and this is totally wrong way to review anything

 

[Jackyu]

I would request to create seperate thread for your general discussions/predictions. Keep this thread only to share updates and news about the merger please too many posts here