'Our content library is much bigger than that of Netflix'

JioStar is India's second-largest media company after Google. It was born in November 2024 after the merger of Viacom18 and Star India, owned by Reliance Industries/Bodhi Tree Systems, and The Walt Disney Company, respectively. The ₹26,000 crore firm's merged app, JioStar, just hit 170 million subscribers. KIRAN MANI, chief executive officer, digital, JioStar, spoke to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar in a video interview, explaining what this means. Edited excerpts:

- KIRAN MANI

How many subscribers did JioStar have before it began streaming the Indian Premier League (IPL) on March 22?

When we merged (in November 2024), we had roughly 45 million subscribers. Both the platforms were delivering about 180 to 200 million monthly active users. JioStar was born on February 14 this year. We have averaged over 300 million active users and are sitting at well over 100 million subscribers. (Editor's note — The figure is about 170 million of which about 41 million are direct. The rest have come through telco partnerships across Jio, Airtel and others, say analysts).

Historically Disney+Hotstar subscriber numbers spike during the IPL and then fall. How sustainable is this rise?