The Jiostar of India has achieved what some streaming platforms have managed worldwide and have doubled its subscriber to 100 million only six weeks after the launch.
The milestone represents an extraordinary performance for the platform, which came from the merger of $ 8.5 billion of the Indian Reliance Industries and Disney’s Indian media assets. The deal combined Disney’s Star India with Reliance’s Viacom18 and streaming platforms Jiocinema and Hotstar. At the time of launch, Jiohotstar had around 45 million subscribers, with both platforms jointly delivering around 180-200 million monthly active users.
Now Kiran Mani, CEO – Digital from parent company Jiostar, has unveiled the strategy behind the meteorical rise in the streaming platform to more than 100 million subscribers.
“In that pure short period of time, in six weeks, our subscription basis was around 45 to 50 million subs. And in just six weeks I would say that we are good north of the triple figure number,” says Mani says Variety. “Although we place 100 million, I think it’s also far beyond 100 million marks.”
Mani attributes the rapid growth of the platform to three fundamental principles: access, loyalty construction and value -oriented prices.
“We have a lot of thoughts and action to be present in a billion screens on mobile manufacturers, CTVs [connected TVs]And ensuring that we were present a standard app was important, “Mani explains. Jiohotstar works with more than 40 CTV manufacturers and 70+ mobile phone providers, and currently has almost 55-60 million active CTV screens.
The second strategic element included allowing potential subscribers to taste the enormous content library of the platform before they enter into a commitment. “In principle, we want people to experience the entire library for a sample period,” says Mani. “In retrospect, it was a completely new proposition of every OTT [streamer]But very happy that we have made the decision. ‘
Perhaps the most important thing, on a very price -conscious market, the platform maintained its affordable price strategy, despite the temptation to increase rates after combining two large content libraries. On approximately INR49 (about $ 0.57) per month, Jiostar has positioned itself as an essential service instead of a luxury.
“I think you should be careful in India that you have to offer value before you scale it,” Mani notes. “People now in India, at least for Jiohotstar, have made entertainment part of their basic worship package. So instead of a need, it has become a need.”
“We never forget the fact that loyalty leads to a subscription, no subscriptions lead to loyalty,” adds Mani. “So we build access, we build loyalty and then offer subscriptions and we always keep subscriptions at a level where people think that this is a good price that they get, because India is a very value -centric market and we have to keep ourselves there.”
The sports offer of the platform, in particular the Cricket Tournament of the Indian Premier League (IPL), have been an important motorcycle of viewers. The recent Champions trophy has achieved a worldwide record for simultaneous for every sporting event, and Mani notes that even regular competitions now break records that have previously been set by major finals.
In addition to Sports, Jiostar Pioniert is new contents formats via its “Sparks” initiative -where India’s top 25 makers come to the platform and build their own IPs -and comprises live streaming events such as a recent Coldplay concert and religious ceremonies such as Mahashivaratri, then broadcasts.
The platform also investigates vertical micro-dramas-shaped episodic content designed for mobile display, a format that generates billions of income in Asia. “It is a super interesting format, and I am convinced that it will bring a completely new set of producers and storytellers to life,” says Mani.
Jiostar’s content strategy also extends to Hollywood offers, where the platform has discovered that international content in multiple Indian languages dramatically increases viewers. “One of the things we have seen as a trend is the content ‘travelability’ about multiple language boundaries in India,” notes Mani, adding that Hollywood -content is most consumed in Hindi instead of English.
The platform has also brought about a revolution in its approach to Telco partnerships, where subscriptions are automatically activated based on the existing telco packages of users instead of forcing them to navigate multiple subscription paths. “This is, I think, the first time it has ever happened with all the telco’s in India, and that also means that the increase we see and the attached rates we see with telco’s are never seen before,” says Mani.
Jiostar is looking ahead heavily in personalization powered by AI. “Today, when I open the app, or when my wife opens the app, or my daughter opens the app, the version of the app they see is fundamentally different,” Mani explains. “The possibility to personalize in the order of someone really happened at the fastest possible time.”
The platform also improves interactivity, in particular for viewing sport, with functions such as “important moments” with which viewers have access to short highlights when viewing long content. Advanced metadata tagging – cricket balls are tagged with 90 different parameters – makes advanced speech and personalized clip compilations possible.
When demanding a timeline for reaching 200 million subscribers, Mani refused to set a specific goal. “We never even expected that the timeline for the 100 million will be so fast, who knows?” he says. “I think India surprises us. We are very grateful. I also feel that it is now a position of responsibility, because we have come to a place where no one has been before, which also means that each line book is being redefined. So if we get 200 million, we will be very, very grateful, but it makes our responsibility even more.”