What is JioStar?
JioStar is the brand under which a Reliance–Disney joint venture operates television channels and streaming services in India. Reliance Industries and The Walt Disney Company announced the completion of the transaction that formed the venture on 14 November 2024. Their joint release names Star India Private Limited as the joint-venture entity and gives the shareholdings as 16.34 per cent Reliance Industries, 46.82 per cent Viacom18 and 36.84 per cent Disney, on a post-money valuation of ₹70,352 crore, about US$8.5 billion, excluding synergies.[1]
The same release states that the venture operates more than 100 television channels, produces over 30,000 hours of television content a year, and that its two streaming platforms at completion — JioCinema and Hotstar — had an aggregate subscription base of over 50 million. It gives pro forma combined revenue of about ₹26,000 crore, roughly US$3.1 billion, for the financial year ended March 2024.[1]
Sport runs under the Star Sports channel brand on television and on the JioHotstar streaming service. The International Cricket Council's broadcaster listing for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 names JioStar as the rights holder for India and lists Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 2 Hindi, Star Sports Tamil, Star Sports Telugu and Star Sports Kannada, with the JioHotstar app and the Hotstar website carrying the stream. The ICC notes that the linear feed originating in India also extends into Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.[3]
What does JioStar cover?
The documented core of the output is cricket. At the Board of Control for Cricket in India's electronic auction that began on 12 June 2022, the Indian Premier League media rights for the 2023 to 2027 seasons were split: Disney Star took the Indian subcontinent television package for ₹23,575 crore, and Viacom18 took the subcontinent digital package together with television and digital rights for Australia and New Zealand, the United Kingdom and South Africa, for ₹23,758 crore. The whole tender realised ₹48,390.5 crore.[5] Both buyers now sit inside the same joint venture.
Separately, Viacom18 won the BCCI's bilateral media rights for the 2023 to 2028 cycle, covering 88 international matches played in India and excluding the IPL, for ₹5,963 crore, about US$720 million, split ₹3,101 crore digital and ₹2,862 crore television, as reported on 31 August 2023.[6] For ICC events, the council's own broadcaster page for the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup names JioStar for India.[3]
The channel list the ICC published for that tournament shows how the coverage is delivered: seven Star Sports feeds in five languages — English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada — alongside the app and web streams.[3] On its own site the company groups its business into entertainment, sports and consumer products, and names Ishan Chatterjee as chief executive for sports.[2]
How large is JioStar's audience?
The figures the company publishes are its own. JioStar states on its site that its television network and streaming service together reach more than 800 million viewers every week; no measurement body is named for that figure.[2] On 15 June 2026 the company reported that the 2026 Indian Premier League season had drawn a reach of more than 1.2 billion viewers, up 7 per cent year on year, 870 billion watch minutes, 25 billion digital video views, and more than 400 million viewers for the final. That announcement named no measurement agency either, so the numbers are the rights holder's own claims rather than audited audience data.[7]
The measurement context in India is set by the Broadcast Audience Research Council. Reporting on 25 February 2026 on a cross-media measurement pilot announced by BARC India with JioStar on 20 February 2026, Indiantelevision.com gave BARC's panel as about 58,000 people meters against roughly 230 million television households, and described the pilot as a first structured attempt to track audiences across linear television, connected television and mobile.[8] An earlier cross-screen study run by JioStar with BARC and Nielsen during the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup reported cross-screen duplication below 10 per cent across the participating campaigns.[8]
No BARC channel-level rating for the Star Sports channels, and no Comscore figure for JioHotstar, could be retrieved for this page.
Since when has JioStar existed?
Three dates have to be kept apart. The JioStar brand dates from the completion of the Reliance–Disney transaction announced on 14 November 2024.[1] The legal entity behind it, Star India Private Limited, is named in that release as the joint-venture company and was not created by the transaction; the transaction changed who owned it and in what proportions.[1]
The rights the venture carries were bought earlier, by two companies that were then competitors. Disney Star acquired the IPL television package at the June 2022 auction and Viacom18 the digital package at the same auction;[5] Viacom18 won the BCCI bilateral rights in the tender reported on 31 August 2023.[6] The merger did not create those contracts, it consolidated them.
The streaming side changed again after completion. The November 2024 release describes JioCinema and Hotstar as two platforms with a combined subscription base of over 50 million.[1] By the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup the ICC's broadcaster listing gave a single app, JioHotstar, with the Hotstar website alongside it.[3]
Why does JioStar matter in India's sport?
The venture holds, in one place, the television and digital packages for the IPL, the BCCI's bilateral international cricket in India, and ICC events in India — three rights sets that were held by three separate buyers before November 2024.[1][5][6] That concentration is the reason the venture's commercial position is itself news in India.
It has also been contested. On 10 December 2025 Exchange4media reported that the ICC was looking for a successor to JioStar in India, putting the existing agreement at US$3 billion over four years and describing weak advertising conditions and flat subscription growth as the reasons the economics no longer worked; the report named Sony Pictures Networks India, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video as parties the ICC had approached, and said no successor had been agreed.[9] Two days later, on 12 December 2025, the ICC and JioStar issued a joint statement saying that the existing agreement remained fully in force, that JioStar continued as the ICC's official media rights partner in India, and that any suggestion JioStar had withdrawn from the agreement was incorrect.[4] The ICC's own broadcaster page for the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup subsequently listed JioStar for India.[3]
The reported dispute is a trade publication's account of a commercial negotiation; the joint statement is the parties' own. Neither is a finding by any adjudicating body.
References
- Reliance Industries — media release: Reliance and Disney announce completion of transaction to form joint venture, 14 November 2024. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- JioStar — About Us. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- International Cricket Council — Official Broadcasters, ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- International Cricket Council — Joint statement from ICC and JioStar on media rights agreement and recent media reports, 12 December 2025. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- ESPNcricinfo — Disney Star and Viacom18 share the spoils in IPL 2023–2027 media rights auction, June 2022. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- ESPNcricinfo — BCCI media rights: Viacom18 wins digital and TV rights for five years for US$720 million, 31 August 2023. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- MediaBrief — JioStar reports TATA IPL 2026 reach and watch-time figures, 15 June 2026. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Indiantelevision.com — BARC launches cross-media measurement pilot with JioStar, 25 February 2026. Accessed 2026-09-19.
- Exchange4media — Media rights: ICC's hunt for a JioStar successor may be easier said than done, 10 December 2025. Accessed 2026-09-19.