MUMBAI: It’s a giga merger. Two of India’s leading brands fusing into one.

Can the branding, the logo, and brand ident  that emerge be any less?

The brands in question are; Jio and Disney+Hotstar, both very well-known of their own accord. One a leader in providing mobile telephony services which runs a streaming platform called JioCinema; the other a leader in streaming, the best in its class. Both have tremendous recall value and have customers running into hundreds of millions.

A tough ask for any one to find a solution that would do justice when they unite - where the sum of the united two will be greater than the sum of both as individuals .

One simple possibility was calling it JioHotstar.  Quite simple right?

And that’s what JioStar, the joint venture formed by the merger of Viacom18 and Star India,  decided upon. The  birth of JioHotstar  will see the demise of both JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar.

It will have a reach of 500 million users and will offer 300,000 hours of content including films and shows from major Hollywood studios including Disney, NBCUniversal Peacock, Warner Bros. Discovery HBO, and Paramount, alongside Indian entertainment across 10 languages.

"At the core of JioHotstar is a powerful vision—to make premium entertainment truly accessible to all Indians,” said  Jiostar chief executive digital Kiran Mani. The platform will offer free content to all viewers, with premium subscription plans starting at Rs 149.

Jiostar chief executive entertainment Kevin Vaz emphasised the platform's commitment to digital-first content, while sports chief executive Sanjog Gupta highlighted its enhanced sports viewing features, including ultra-HD 4K streaming and AI-powered insights. JioHotstar will also have a new segment called Sparks which India’s digital content creators can call their home.

There was some debate in media circles on what the back end of the new service will be. Would it be the JioCinema one or would it be Disney+ Hotstar’s? At the time of writing, folks within JioStar had confirmed to indiantelevision.com that it was indeed Hotstar’s tech stack that was being used to power the JioHotstar app as it proved to be more superior on several fronts. The main ones being: ability to handle high concurrency of users, serve high end, high quality 4K videos,  even at low bandwidths, the tech innovations in terms of vertical video and interactivity that it supported. AI-powered insights, real-time stats overlays, multi-angle viewing and range of 'culture' and 'special interest' feeds — ensuring fans enjoy deeper, more immersive access to the sports they love.

The logo itself is a standout and can have several interpretations. Here’s two: a star doing a Swan Lake like dance;  a heavenly body arms open wide ready to embrace one and all. Clearly, for those who have been so used to seeing the Disney Star and existing JioCinema logos, it  will take some getting used to. The font for the brandname is sans serif, which fits well with the star burst.

JioHotstar’s new brand identity  created and developed by venture3 embodies its vision for boundless entertainment. The Big Bang’ symbolises the dawn of a new era, while the Ripples radiate outward, representing energy, transformation, and innovation. The background colours are tetradic (psychedelic) with bright pinks, mauves , indigos and blues being thrown in for good measure and are eyecatching and hypnotic. Step one of the battle to attract viewers won! And the tagline carries with it a lot of promise: Infinite possibilities begin here!  Existing JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar subscribers will be able to transition seamlessly to the new platform.

The service will stream major sporting events including ICC tournaments, IPL, WPL, Premier League and Wimbledon, alongside entertainment content in multiple Indian languages.