JioCinema-Star Sports Merged: Not JioCinema, but Hotstar will now stream India’s international matches live. Starting with the India vs. England T20I and ODI series in January-February 2025, live streaming will be available on Hotstar instead of JioCinema.
This has been announced by the official X account of Star Sports itself. Jio and Star have recently merged. Jio Cinema is the streaming partner of the Indian cricket team. Which currently does live streaming of domestic and international matches. But this has been changed for the India vs England T20I and ODI International series to be played in January-February 2025. Consequently, there will no longer be live broadcasting on Sports18 or JioCinema for these matches. Because both these companies have merged. From January, both these companies will be known as one company. Star Sports itself has given this information through its X account.
Now the live matches of India vs England T20 and ODI series to be held from January-February 2025 will be available to you on Hotstar instead of Jio Cinema. Last year, Viacom 18 bought the media rights to India’s domestic matches (domestic and international). Due to this, the subscribers of Star Network had decreased. Jio Cinema also bought the digital rights of IPL, due to which Star Network had to suffer. Now with the merger of both, soon we may get JioStar as an app or Hotstar itself can be changed to JioStar.
Viacom18 and Star Sports Merger Brings Live Cricket to Hotstar
Viacom18 had bought both TV and digital rights for all the matches of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to be played in India for the 2023-28 cycle. Since then, both domestic and international matches have been available to us on Star Sports 18 TV. After the merger, JioStar is a website launched by Jio. There is a possibility that Disney + Hotstar may be renamed as Jio Star. However, no official announcement has been made yet.
The upcoming T20 series between India and England will start from January 22. After the five-match T20 series, a three-match ODI series will also be played between the two teams. This series is very important for both teams in view of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The Indian team will play all the matches of the Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan at its neutral venue Dubai. However, the matches of England will be held in Pakistan.
