India's largest video streaming platform is going global. JioHotstar, owned by the Ambani family business empire, is launching in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Singapore, according to Bloomberg. The move marks the first time the platform has expanded beyond India.
The company is targeting the millions of South Asian viewers who live in those three countries. The South Asian diaspora has grown steadily in all three markets, making them logical first stops for a platform built around Indian content.
JioHotstar holds the dominant position in the Indian streaming market, where it competes with international players such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The overseas launch puts it in direct competition with those same services on their own turf, while betting that diaspora audiences will pay for content that connects them to India.
The UK, Canada, and Singapore each have large and established Indian communities. Canada has seen particularly rapid growth in its South Asian population over the past decade. Singapore has long been home to a significant Indian business and professional community, and the UK's Indian diaspora is one of the oldest and largest in the Western world.
The Bloomberg report did not specify pricing for the new markets or detail which content would be available at launch. It also did not say whether JioHotstar plans to expand to additional countries beyond the initial three.
The move comes as global streaming competition has intensified. Major platforms have been pulling back on spending and looking for ways to grow subscriber counts in new markets. JioHotstar is taking the opposite approach, using its strength at home as a foundation to go after viewers who already know the platform's content but have had no way to access it legally from abroad.
