Mumbai: On October 15, Tiger TV, a dedicated Punjabi and Hindi entertainment destination was launched on the Lionsgate Play streaming app. Under founder-led ownership since 2025, the OTT platform Lionsgate Play offers Hollywood content to millions of viewers across several Asian markets. With Tiger TV, it plans to invest ₹ 500 crore in Punjabi and Hindi content IPs over the next three years.
Tiger TV will be in the Lionsgate Play app across Asia, and as a standalone app in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, a release from the company said.
SonyLIV entered select countries in the Africa and Caribbean region in 2023. JioHotstar’s availability on the Starzplay app and website will allow audiences in Gulf countries access new originals simultaneously with their India releases, with audio-tracks in up to 10 languages. A recent report by Ormax Media found that users of India’s streaming services grew by 15% while paid subscribers grew 16% over the past year. “The global South Asian diaspora represents an addressable audience of approximately 60 million people. Neighbouring markets including Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka add a combined population of more than 225 million,” Amit Malhotra said. MENA alone has approximately 19 million South Asians across its markets, with a significant concentration in the Gulf countries, he noted. JioStar produces approximately 30,000 hours of content every year across its television networks and streaming service JioHotstar in India, spanning 11 languages.
Between September and October, India’s homegrown streaming service JioHotstar also launched in several overseas markets, entering the UK, Canada and Singapore followed by the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Because it is home to one of the world’s largest South Asian communities and has a long relationship with Indian entertainment, on why the streaming service is making a targeted bid for the Indian diaspora, Amit Malhotra, head, International Business, JioStar said, while the UK, Canada and Singapore were the natural first markets, “MENA was always important. The service is also preparing to launch in Nepal. Indian OTT’s presence overseas is not new though JioHotstar’s latest push to expand overseas is notable. Early on, Bengali streaming platform Hoichoi entered Bangladesh and then built an international audience in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. JioHotstar will soon launch in Nepal through DGO, the country’s first government-licensed OTT platform. “Broadcasters like JioStar, Sony and Zee know from their overseas television distribution learnings that there is a ready audience for Indian content outside India. For starters, size is what makes Indian diaspora viewers a big draw for Indian OTT apps. “That gives us the depth to serve very different audiences. Over time, we are also open to developing original content for individual markets where we see a strong consumer opportunity. Technology will be equally important.
Though content from its portfolio was available in the region, they wanted to address the “fragmented” experience for audiences as programmes were either on different services, arriving at different times or not available altogether, Malhotra said. “What changes now is that audiences are getting a much wider and more structured JioHotstar experience through a dedicated streaming destination within Starzplay,” Malhotra said. “However, India’s growth or its slowdown is not connected to overseas expansion of OTT platforms,” said Shailesh Kapoor, founder and CEO, Ormax Media. And streaming is the new-age extension of the same principle that linear TV has followed for almost three decades,” Kapoor said. “Also, because of the huge Indian diaspora and higher average revenue per user, OTT platforms always look at overseas audiences as a lucrative segment,” he said. “It is therefore one of the most important international audiences we can serve,” Malhotra said. For the first time, audiences in the UK, Canada and Singapore can vote live across editions of Bigg Boss,” he said.
