Techie buys JioHotstar domain ahead of merger, offers to sell to Reliance for…

The much-hyped-about merger of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar will certainly shake the streaming landscape in India. These are two of the biggest OTT players in India in terms of subscriber base, and the resulting entity may just monopolise the market, insiders say. While there has been no official word on how the two platforms will merge, reports have claimed one common platform called JioHotstar will emerge. But that may just be slightly tricky now, given that the JioHotstar domain has been grabbed by an opportunistic Delhi techie. (Also read: Reliance’s Jio Cinema may soon merge with Disney+ Hotstar: Here’s what the OTT can offer)
The domain name JioHotstar currently opens to a web page with the banner JioHotstar: Best of Entertainment, Streaming Soon. However, the rather simple web page has no logos or branding. There is a message from the person who has purchased the page, though, and it is addressed to ‘dear executive of Reliance Industries’ (the parent company of JioCinema).
The message reads: “I am an app developer based in Delhi, currently working on my startup. In early 2023, while scrolling through social media, I came across a news piece stating that Disney+ Hotstar was losing daily active users after losing the IPL streaming license, and Disney is considering selling or merging Hotstar with an Indian competitor. This led me to hypothesize that, since Sony and Zee were pursuing their own merger, Viacom 18 (owned by Reliance) is the only major player with sufficient resources to acquire Disney+ Hotstar. This reminded me of when Jio acquired the music streaming service Saavn, they rebranded it to JioSaavn, and changed the domain from Saavn.com to JioSaavn.com. I thought, “If they acquire Hotstar, they might rename it to JioHotstar.com”.”
The developer said that they are willing to sell the domain if Reliance can fund their dream of going to Cambridge University for higher education. “I checked for the domain, and it was available. I was excited, as I felt that if this happened, I could fund my goal of studying at Cambridge,” they said, explaining that a project of theirs was selected for the Cambridge University Accelerate program a few years ago, and they want to study there but are unable to due to financial constraints. “Cambridge also offers a full degree program in entrepreneurship, which I’ve always dreamed of pursuing but could never afford, It’s Cambridge, quite expensive. When I saw this domain become available, I felt things might just fall into place. My intention of buying this domain was simple: if this merger happens, I might be able to fulfill my dream of studying at Cambridge,” the message reads.
The developer has addressed both Viacom and Reliance Industries to reach out to them ‘with an official letter attached, stating your authorisation to purchase’ the domain name. “For a multi-billion dollar company like Reliance, this will be a minor expense, but for me, the sale of this domain would be truly life-changing,” the note concludes.
HT reached out to both JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar for comment on the matter, but had not received any responses till the time of this story being published. The story will be updated based on any responses received from either party.