Indian streaming service JioHotstar launches in Canada with Bollywood, reality TV rights

One of India’s largest streaming services launches in Canada on Wednesday, offering everything from reality TV shows to Bollywood movies aimed at a potential audience that includes 1.1 million Southeast Asian diaspora households.

JioHotstar, a streamer that rivals Netflix Inc. in global reach after picking up 300 million subscribers since being launched less than two years ago, is offering Canadians a wide range of programming in English, Hindi and more than a dozen other Asian languages, using dubs and subtitles.

The service has interactive capabilities that build audience engagement with features that include allowing viewers to vote in reality shows such as Bigg Boss.

“JioHotstar has been built in one of the world’s most diverse entertainment markets,” said Amit Malhotra, JioStar’s Singapore-based head of international business, in a press release. He said: “As we launch in Canada, we are bringing the experience JioHotstar is known for to a market with a strong connection to South Asian culture and content.”

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The streamer is charging Canadians $19.99 for a three-month subscription or an annual plan priced at $49.99. Domestic audiences will be able to watch 160,000 hours of archived content, along with 30,000 hours a year of new shows and movies.

Mumbai-based JioHotstar is owned by one of India’s largest conglomerates, Reliance Industries Ltd., and The Walt Disney Co. The two media companies created the service by merging their streaming platforms in February, 2025.

In its home market, the service includes offerings from the Disney family as well as American-owned networks such as HBO, NBCUniversal (Peacock) and Paramount. Those platforms already have domestic broadcast partners in Canada or their own licences and will not be part of JioHotstar’s domestic offering.

In India, JioHotstar dominates sports streaming, offering Indian Premier League and international cricket, tennis and soccer.

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In Canada, rival broadcasters own the rights to show sports such as Premier League cricket, which is currently shown on streamer Willow TV, controlled by another Mumbai-based conglomerate, The Times Group. Over time, JioHotstar plans to bid for Canadian rights to sports’ broadcasts, according to a spokesperson for the company.

Sports streaming platforms such as London-based DAZN Group Ltd., majority-owned by billionaire Len Blavatnik, have built global audiences by purchasing the rights to sports such as the National Football League and English Premier League soccer.

Netflix is currently Canada’s largest streaming service, with about 9.8 million subscribers, and 350 million customers globally. The other major domestic platforms are Amazon Prime Video, with roughly 7.5 million Canadian followers; Disney+ at six million; Paramount at 5.3 million; and BCE Inc.-owned Crave at four million subscribers.