Bring JioHotstar Into Disney+ — With Dedicated ESPN & JioHotstar Hubs
The Issue
Bring JioHotstar Into Disney+ — With Dedicated ESPN & JioHotstar Hubs
One Disney+ app. Four dedicated hubs. Three subscription choices.
To: The Walt Disney Company, Disney Entertainment, Disney+, ESPN, JioStar, JioHotstar, and relevant regional distribution and rights partners.
Give viewers one coherent Disney+ experience
I am asking Disney and JioStar to make two straightforward changes:
1. Give ESPN its own clearly separated sports hub inside Disney+.
2. Move the full JioHotstar catalogue already available in each local market into Disney+ as its own dedicated JioHotstar hub.
The ideal top-level experience is simple:
Disney+ | Hulu | ESPN | JioHotstar
Four clearly identifiable destinations inside one Disney+ app.
This campaign began in Singapore, but the same issue is relevant to the United Kingdom and Canada, where JioHotstar also launched as a separate service on 2 September 2026.
JioStar says the international service offers more than 160,000 hours of entertainment across 12+ Asian languages, covering television, films, regional programming, originals, non-fiction, kids' content, anime and more.
That is an enormous entertainment catalogue.
It should not have to remain isolated in a completely separate viewing ecosystem when Disney+ is already being designed around multiple distinct content hubs.
Disney+ currently offers only a small part of the Indian-content picture
As a Disney+ subscriber in Singapore, I already see Indian programming inside Disney+.
The catalogue includes Hindi-origin films and programmes, Tamil-origin titles, and some films originally produced in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and other South Indian languages that are available in Hindi-dubbed versions.
However, this is still only a small Indian selection compared with JioHotstar.
I have also observed much of the same limited Indian selection in Disney+ Malaysia.
That demonstrates the problem clearly:
A small Indian catalogue inside Disney+ is not the same thing as JioHotstar.
The answer should not be to add another handful of Indian films or programmes to Hulu.
The answer should be to give JioHotstar itself a proper destination inside Disney+.
The United States offers another useful comparison. Hulu currently has a Hotstar hub, but Hulu itself describes the offering as including many Hotstar Specials and select blockbuster movies, alongside selected Star television programming. In other words, it is still a selected Hotstar catalogue rather than the complete JioHotstar India service.
That is why this petition is asking for something more substantial in markets where JioHotstar already operates as a full standalone service.
Move the full local JioHotstar catalogue into Disney+
The central request is simple:
Whatever JioHotstar already makes available in a particular country should also be accessible through that country's Disney+ app inside a dedicated JioHotstar hub.
For example:
If JioHotstar Singapore currently streams a title, that title should become available inside the JioHotstar hub on Disney+ Singapore.
If JioHotstar UK carries it, it should become available through the UK Disney+ JioHotstar hub.
If JioHotstar Canada carries it, it should become available through Disney+ Canada.
The same principle should apply to:
movies
television series
JioHotstar originals
Hotstar Specials
reality programmes
regional-language programming
non-fiction
kids' programming
anime
locally available audio tracks
subtitles
locally available dubbed versions
The goal is to migrate the full locally available JioHotstar entertainment catalogue, not merely select a few titles to appear within Hulu.
Same local catalogue. Same available languages. One Disney+ app.
If contractual or platform clearances are required to make that migration happen, Disney and JioStar can resolve those arrangements commercially.
The consumer-facing objective is straightforward: viewers should not need a completely separate app to access a catalogue that can become another destination inside Disney+.
Give JioHotstar its own dedicated hub
JioHotstar should not simply become another row buried inside Hulu or the Disney+ homepage.
It deserves its own clearly identifiable destination.
The top navigation should therefore follow a structure such as:
Disney+ | Hulu | ESPN | JioHotstar
The JioHotstar hub would be the home for Indian and Asian entertainment.
It should provide proper discovery by:
language
genre
region
movies
television
originals
reality
kids
anime
new releases
popular programmes
A viewer looking specifically for Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi or other available programming should not have to search through a small generic international catalogue.
JioHotstar already has the catalogue organisation and metadata needed for multilingual discovery.
Bring that experience into Disney+.
Give ESPN its own dedicated sports hub
ESPN should be treated separately from JioHotstar.
The proposal is not to put sports inside the JioHotstar entertainment hub.
ESPN should have its own dedicated section, positioned between Hulu and JioHotstar:
Disney+ | Hulu | ESPN | JioHotstar
Disney has already adopted this product direction. Its Disney+ redesign introduced separate Disney+, Hulu and ESPN tabs depending on market and subscription, and Disney officially expanded ESPN on Disney+ to 53 countries and territories across Europe and Asia-Pacific in April 2026. Singapore was among the select APAC markets included in that expansion.
That makes ESPN the natural home for sports.
The roles would therefore remain clear:
Disney+ — Disney's core entertainment ecosystem.
Hulu — general entertainment.
ESPN — sports.
JioHotstar — Indian and Asian entertainment.
Different content identities.
One app.
Indian cricket should come through ESPN when local rights permit
The international JioHotstar launch in the UK, Canada and Singapore did not include the major live sports that are central to JioHotstar in India, including the IPL, WPL and Indian national-team cricket. JioStar told TechCrunch that existing content agreements were the reason sports were not included at launch, while not ruling out future additions.
This petition does not claim those Indian sports rights automatically transfer internationally.
They do not.
Sports rights are territorial and existing agreements must be respected.
Instead, I am asking Disney, ESPN, JioStar and their regional partners to pursue rights where commercially and legally possible for:
IPL
WPL
India international cricket
Relevant ICC events
and other major Indian sports where appropriate.
If those rights become available, they should be delivered through the ESPN hub inside Disney+.
If some premium sports cannot economically be included in a standard subscription, offer a transparent sports add-on.
The important point is that consumers should not have to add yet another disconnected streaming app.
Three subscription choices — one viewing app
Integrating JioHotstar into Disney+ does not mean removing consumer choice.
I propose three simple subscription options:
1. Disney+
For viewers who only want the standard Disney+ offering.
2. JioHotstar
For viewers who only want JioHotstar's Indian and Asian entertainment catalogue.
But instead of requiring a separate JioHotstar viewing application, their subscription could simply unlock the JioHotstar hub inside Disney+.
3. Disney+ + JioHotstar
A combined subscription providing both services through the Disney+ app, ideally at a meaningful discount compared with paying for both separately.
ESPN does not need to become a fourth JioHotstar subscription choice.
Access to ESPN sports can continue to depend on the customer's country, Disney+ plan, local sports rights and any relevant sports add-on.
One account should mean one integrated experience
For customers using both Disney+ and JioHotstar, integration should provide:
One account
One sign-in
One bill
One renewal date
One set of household profiles
Shared parental controls
One watchlist
Unified search
Integrated recommendations
Cross-service discovery
Multilingual discovery
Simple plan upgrades and downgrades
Consumers should be able to move between Disney, Hulu, ESPN and JioHotstar without constantly switching apps, accounts and viewing environments.
This is not a demand for the entire JioHotstar India catalogue
This distinction matters.
JioStar says JioHotstar India has more than 300,000 hours of programming across 19 languages, including entertainment, live sports and programming from more than 100 JioStar channels.
The international service launched in Singapore, Canada and the UK with 160,000+ hours across 12+ Asian languages.
I am not asking Disney or JioStar to give Singapore, Canada or the UK every title available in India.
I am not asking them to acquire every regional-language version of every movie.
If Disney+ Singapore currently has a film only in Hindi, this petition does not demand that Disney acquire Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada versions simply because those versions exist somewhere else.
Instead:
Move the catalogue JioHotstar already offers in that country into Disney+.
If JioHotstar Singapore already provides a Malayalam title in Malayalam, preserve it.
If it provides a Telugu programme with Telugu and Hindi audio, preserve those available versions.
If something is not licensed for Singapore, Canada or the UK, it does not need to be added merely because it exists on JioHotstar India.
Same market. Same available catalogue. Better platform integration.
Disney has already shown that this model is possible
This is not an entirely new idea for Disney.
Disney has already made Hulu its international general-entertainment brand inside Disney+, and its current navigation strategy includes distinct Disney+, Hulu and ESPN destinations.
Disney has also consolidated standalone streaming services before.
In Latin America, Disney previously operated Disney+ and Star+ separately. At the end of June 2024, Disney merged the two services into a single Disney+ product offering.
That is a particularly relevant precedent.
A separately operated service can be brought into Disney+ while its content identity remains clear.
The same principle can be applied to JioHotstar.
Disney+ is already becoming multilingual enough for this
This proposal is also consistent with Disney+'s technical direction.
In July 2026, Disney expanded support to 58 audio languages and introduced additional interface, audio and timed-text support including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, as well as Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Arabic and others.
That does not remove territorial licensing restrictions.
But it shows that Disney+ is being developed as a genuinely multilingual global platform.
A JioHotstar hub would fit naturally into that direction.
Start with Singapore, the UK and Canada
These should be the immediate focus because they are the three markets where JioStar officially launched the new international JioHotstar service in September 2026.
Malaysia is also relevant because, from my own comparison, Disney+ there shows much of the same limited Indian selection I see in Singapore.
The United States is relevant because Hulu already carries a selected Hotstar library rather than the full JioHotstar ecosystem.
Different countries have different rights arrangements, so this petition does not pretend that every market is identical.
But the principle can be global:
Where Disney and JioStar have the rights to distribute JioHotstar content, use Disney+ as the unified viewing platform rather than unnecessarily fragmenting the experience across separate apps.
And if JioHotstar expands to additional countries later, integration should be considered from the beginning.
What this petition is NOT asking for
This petition is not asking for everything for free.
It is not asking every Disney+ customer to pay for JioHotstar.
It is not asking every JioHotstar customer to pay for Disney+.
It is not demanding the entire Indian JioHotstar catalogue in every country.
It is not asking Disney or JioStar to violate existing entertainment or sports-rights agreements.
It is not demanding every possible language track for every title.
It is not demanding that all sports be included in the standard subscription price.
It is not asking JioHotstar to lose its own identity.
It is asking for something much simpler:
Keep the choices. Remove the unnecessary app fragmentation.
The experience should be simple
A household should be able to move naturally from:
Marvel → Hulu drama → ESPN sports → Tamil film → Telugu series → Hindi entertainment → Pixar → Indian cricket
without managing disconnected viewing environments.
The destination should be:
Disney+ | Hulu | ESPN | JioHotstar
Four dedicated hubs. One Disney+ app.
And consumers should still have:
Disney+
JioHotstar
Disney+ + JioHotstar
as three clear subscription choices.
Disney has already integrated Hulu.
Disney has already created ESPN destinations inside Disney+.
Disney has already consolidated another standalone service, Star+, into Disney+.
Disney+ already supports a much wider range of languages.
JioHotstar now has a substantial international catalogue in Singapore, the UK and Canada.
The next step should be to bring the full locally available JioHotstar catalogue into Disney+.
Please sign and share this petition if you want a simpler, more multilingual and more consumer-friendly Disney+ experience — with dedicated ESPN and JioHotstar hubs, less fragmentation, and more choice.
3
The Issue
Bring JioHotstar Into Disney+ — With Dedicated ESPN & JioHotstar Hubs
One Disney+ app. Four dedicated hubs. Three subscription choices.
To: The Walt Disney Company, Disney Entertainment, Disney+, ESPN, JioStar, JioHotstar, and relevant regional distribution and rights partners.
Give viewers one coherent Disney+ experience
I am asking Disney and JioStar to make two straightforward changes:
1. Give ESPN its own clearly separated sports hub inside Disney+.
2. Move the full JioHotstar catalogue already available in each local market into Disney+ as its own dedicated JioHotstar hub.
The ideal top-level experience is simple:
Disney+ | Hulu | ESPN | JioHotstar
Four clearly identifiable destinations inside one Disney+ app.
This campaign began in Singapore, but the same issue is relevant to the United Kingdom and Canada, where JioHotstar also launched as a separate service on 2 September 2026.
JioStar says the international service offers more than 160,000 hours of entertainment across 12+ Asian languages, covering television, films, regional programming, originals, non-fiction, kids' content, anime and more.
That is an enormous entertainment catalogue.
It should not have to remain isolated in a completely separate viewing ecosystem when Disney+ is already being designed around multiple distinct content hubs.
Disney+ currently offers only a small part of the Indian-content picture
As a Disney+ subscriber in Singapore, I already see Indian programming inside Disney+.
The catalogue includes Hindi-origin films and programmes, Tamil-origin titles, and some films originally produced in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and other South Indian languages that are available in Hindi-dubbed versions.
However, this is still only a small Indian selection compared with JioHotstar.
I have also observed much of the same limited Indian selection in Disney+ Malaysia.
That demonstrates the problem clearly:
A small Indian catalogue inside Disney+ is not the same thing as JioHotstar.
The answer should not be to add another handful of Indian films or programmes to Hulu.
The answer should be to give JioHotstar itself a proper destination inside Disney+.
The United States offers another useful comparison. Hulu currently has a Hotstar hub, but Hulu itself describes the offering as including many Hotstar Specials and select blockbuster movies, alongside selected Star television programming. In other words, it is still a selected Hotstar catalogue rather than the complete JioHotstar India service.
That is why this petition is asking for something more substantial in markets where JioHotstar already operates as a full standalone service.
Move the full local JioHotstar catalogue into Disney+
The central request is simple:
Whatever JioHotstar already makes available in a particular country should also be accessible through that country's Disney+ app inside a dedicated JioHotstar hub.
For example:
If JioHotstar Singapore currently streams a title, that title should become available inside the JioHotstar hub on Disney+ Singapore.
If JioHotstar UK carries it, it should become available through the UK Disney+ JioHotstar hub.
If JioHotstar Canada carries it, it should become available through Disney+ Canada.
The same principle should apply to:
movies
television series
JioHotstar originals
Hotstar Specials
reality programmes
regional-language programming
non-fiction
kids' programming
anime
locally available audio tracks
subtitles
locally available dubbed versions
The goal is to migrate the full locally available JioHotstar entertainment catalogue, not merely select a few titles to appear within Hulu.
Same local catalogue. Same available languages. One Disney+ app.
If contractual or platform clearances are required to make that migration happen, Disney and JioStar can resolve those arrangements commercially.
The consumer-facing objective is straightforward: viewers should not need a completely separate app to access a catalogue that can become another destination inside Disney+.
Give JioHotstar its own dedicated hub
JioHotstar should not simply become another row buried inside Hulu or the Disney+ homepage.
It deserves its own clearly identifiable destination.
The top navigation should therefore follow a structure such as:
Disney+ | Hulu | ESPN | JioHotstar
The JioHotstar hub would be the home for Indian and Asian entertainment.
It should provide proper discovery by:
language
genre
region
movies
television
originals
reality
kids
anime
new releases
popular programmes
A viewer looking specifically for Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi or other available programming should not have to search through a small generic international catalogue.
JioHotstar already has the catalogue organisation and metadata needed for multilingual discovery.
Bring that experience into Disney+.
Give ESPN its own dedicated sports hub
ESPN should be treated separately from JioHotstar.
The proposal is not to put sports inside the JioHotstar entertainment hub.
ESPN should have its own dedicated section, positioned between Hulu and JioHotstar:
Disney+ | Hulu | ESPN | JioHotstar
Disney has already adopted this product direction. Its Disney+ redesign introduced separate Disney+, Hulu and ESPN tabs depending on market and subscription, and Disney officially expanded ESPN on Disney+ to 53 countries and territories across Europe and Asia-Pacific in April 2026. Singapore was among the select APAC markets included in that expansion.
That makes ESPN the natural home for sports.
The roles would therefore remain clear:
Disney+ — Disney's core entertainment ecosystem.
Hulu — general entertainment.
ESPN — sports.
JioHotstar — Indian and Asian entertainment.
Different content identities.
One app.
Indian cricket should come through ESPN when local rights permit
The international JioHotstar launch in the UK, Canada and Singapore did not include the major live sports that are central to JioHotstar in India, including the IPL, WPL and Indian national-team cricket. JioStar told TechCrunch that existing content agreements were the reason sports were not included at launch, while not ruling out future additions.
This petition does not claim those Indian sports rights automatically transfer internationally.
They do not.
Sports rights are territorial and existing agreements must be respected.
Instead, I am asking Disney, ESPN, JioStar and their regional partners to pursue rights where commercially and legally possible for:
IPL
WPL
India international cricket
Relevant ICC events
and other major Indian sports where appropriate.
If those rights become available, they should be delivered through the ESPN hub inside Disney+.
If some premium sports cannot economically be included in a standard subscription, offer a transparent sports add-on.
The important point is that consumers should not have to add yet another disconnected streaming app.
Three subscription choices — one viewing app
Integrating JioHotstar into Disney+ does not mean removing consumer choice.
I propose three simple subscription options:
1. Disney+
For viewers who only want the standard Disney+ offering.
2. JioHotstar
For viewers who only want JioHotstar's Indian and Asian entertainment catalogue.
But instead of requiring a separate JioHotstar viewing application, their subscription could simply unlock the JioHotstar hub inside Disney+.
3. Disney+ + JioHotstar
A combined subscription providing both services through the Disney+ app, ideally at a meaningful discount compared with paying for both separately.
ESPN does not need to become a fourth JioHotstar subscription choice.
Access to ESPN sports can continue to depend on the customer's country, Disney+ plan, local sports rights and any relevant sports add-on.
One account should mean one integrated experience
For customers using both Disney+ and JioHotstar, integration should provide:
One account
One sign-in
One bill
One renewal date
One set of household profiles
Shared parental controls
One watchlist
Unified search
Integrated recommendations
Cross-service discovery
Multilingual discovery
Simple plan upgrades and downgrades
Consumers should be able to move between Disney, Hulu, ESPN and JioHotstar without constantly switching apps, accounts and viewing environments.
This is not a demand for the entire JioHotstar India catalogue
This distinction matters.
JioStar says JioHotstar India has more than 300,000 hours of programming across 19 languages, including entertainment, live sports and programming from more than 100 JioStar channels.
The international service launched in Singapore, Canada and the UK with 160,000+ hours across 12+ Asian languages.
I am not asking Disney or JioStar to give Singapore, Canada or the UK every title available in India.
I am not asking them to acquire every regional-language version of every movie.
If Disney+ Singapore currently has a film only in Hindi, this petition does not demand that Disney acquire Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada versions simply because those versions exist somewhere else.
Instead:
Move the catalogue JioHotstar already offers in that country into Disney+.
If JioHotstar Singapore already provides a Malayalam title in Malayalam, preserve it.
If it provides a Telugu programme with Telugu and Hindi audio, preserve those available versions.
If something is not licensed for Singapore, Canada or the UK, it does not need to be added merely because it exists on JioHotstar India.
Same market. Same available catalogue. Better platform integration.
Disney has already shown that this model is possible
This is not an entirely new idea for Disney.
Disney has already made Hulu its international general-entertainment brand inside Disney+, and its current navigation strategy includes distinct Disney+, Hulu and ESPN destinations.
Disney has also consolidated standalone streaming services before.
In Latin America, Disney previously operated Disney+ and Star+ separately. At the end of June 2024, Disney merged the two services into a single Disney+ product offering.
That is a particularly relevant precedent.
A separately operated service can be brought into Disney+ while its content identity remains clear.
The same principle can be applied to JioHotstar.
Disney+ is already becoming multilingual enough for this
This proposal is also consistent with Disney+'s technical direction.
In July 2026, Disney expanded support to 58 audio languages and introduced additional interface, audio and timed-text support including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, as well as Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Arabic and others.
That does not remove territorial licensing restrictions.
But it shows that Disney+ is being developed as a genuinely multilingual global platform.
A JioHotstar hub would fit naturally into that direction.
Start with Singapore, the UK and Canada
These should be the immediate focus because they are the three markets where JioStar officially launched the new international JioHotstar service in September 2026.
Malaysia is also relevant because, from my own comparison, Disney+ there shows much of the same limited Indian selection I see in Singapore.
The United States is relevant because Hulu already carries a selected Hotstar library rather than the full JioHotstar ecosystem.
Different countries have different rights arrangements, so this petition does not pretend that every market is identical.
But the principle can be global:
Where Disney and JioStar have the rights to distribute JioHotstar content, use Disney+ as the unified viewing platform rather than unnecessarily fragmenting the experience across separate apps.
And if JioHotstar expands to additional countries later, integration should be considered from the beginning.
What this petition is NOT asking for
This petition is not asking for everything for free.
It is not asking every Disney+ customer to pay for JioHotstar.
It is not asking every JioHotstar customer to pay for Disney+.
It is not demanding the entire Indian JioHotstar catalogue in every country.
It is not asking Disney or JioStar to violate existing entertainment or sports-rights agreements.
It is not demanding every possible language track for every title.
It is not demanding that all sports be included in the standard subscription price.
It is not asking JioHotstar to lose its own identity.
It is asking for something much simpler:
Keep the choices. Remove the unnecessary app fragmentation.
The experience should be simple
A household should be able to move naturally from:
Marvel → Hulu drama → ESPN sports → Tamil film → Telugu series → Hindi entertainment → Pixar → Indian cricket
without managing disconnected viewing environments.
The destination should be:
Disney+ | Hulu | ESPN | JioHotstar
Four dedicated hubs. One Disney+ app.
And consumers should still have:
Disney+
JioHotstar
Disney+ + JioHotstar
as three clear subscription choices.
Disney has already integrated Hulu.
Disney has already created ESPN destinations inside Disney+.
Disney has already consolidated another standalone service, Star+, into Disney+.
Disney+ already supports a much wider range of languages.
JioHotstar now has a substantial international catalogue in Singapore, the UK and Canada.
The next step should be to bring the full locally available JioHotstar catalogue into Disney+.
Please sign and share this petition if you want a simpler, more multilingual and more consumer-friendly Disney+ experience — with dedicated ESPN and JioHotstar hubs, less fragmentation, and more choice.
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Petition created on 13 September 2026