Reliance to retain Disney+ Hotstar as sole streaming platform for merged entity

Reliance Industries is expected to retain Disney+ Hotstar as the only streaming platform following the merger of Star India and Viacom18, sources familiar with the matter told The Economic Times (ET).JioCinema will merge into Disney+ Hotstar, positioning it as the central streaming platform for the combined entity, sources added.RIL had explored various strategies for the streaming business. At one stage, it considered integrating Disney+ Hotstar into JioCinema, and there were discussions about running two separate platforms—one for sports and another for entertainment.”However, Reliance’s leadership opted to keep Disney+ Hotstar due to its superior tech infrastructure,” a source aware of the discussions said.ET first reported on August 19 that Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which will control the merged Star-Viacom18 entity, is inclined to consolidate JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar into a single OTT platform.Disney+ Hotstar, the streaming service owned by Walt Disney’s Star…