Jio and Star to kick off partnership with England’s tour of India

A new era in sports entertainment is all set to kick off next month after the mega-merger between the two broadcasting giants, Jio and Star, is now officially completed. England's upcoming white-ball tour of India will mark the beginning of Jio and Star’s partnership, as per Cricbuzz.

India will be hosting England in the eight white-ball matches between January 22 and February 12, and during this series, these two broadcasting giants will share the platforms.

A new era in sports broadcasting begins with the India vs England series

India vs England matches will be broadcast live on Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar, despite JioCinema originally securing exclusive media rights under Viacom18's INR 5,963 crore deal with the BCCI for 5 years.

Read Also: India U19 squad for ICC Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup 2025 announced

Star Sports announced this groundbreaking collaboration on its social media platforms on Monday, December 23. Star revealed that the eight matches slated between India and England will be available live on Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar, marking a new chapter in shared broadcasting.

Interestingly, the original platforms, Sports18 and JioCinema, will still have access to stream and broadcast the white-ball series between India and England, offering viewers multiple platforms to enjoy the cricketing action. However, Star’s platforms will remain the primary broadcasters.

Star likely to share ICC events with Jio

It is being said that future collaborations could include major ICC events like the Champions Trophy, potentially streaming across both Star and Jio’s platforms. Notably, the rights for the ICC events are secured by Disney Star, but they might also be accessible on JioCinema and Sports18.

On the merger, they said in an official statement: “RIL, Viacom 18 Media Private Limited (Viacom18), and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) (Disney) today announced that following the approval by the Hon'ble NCLT Mumbai, the Competition Commission of India, and other regulatory authorities, the merger of the media and JioCinema businesses of Viacom18 into Star India Private Limited (SIPL) has become effective (the JV). In addition, RIL has invested Rs 11,500 crore (1.4 billion) into the JV for its growth. The JV has allotted shares to Viacom18 and RIL as consideration for the assets and cash, respectively.”

Read Also: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli lose cool, get angry at fans in Melbourne over this act

It is being said that the joint venture (JV) transaction was valued at INR 70,352 crore (USD 8.5 billion). After the deal, the JV is now controlled by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), with ownership distributed as 16.34% by RIL, 46.82% by Viacom18, and 36.84% by Disney.

Sports18 and JioCinema became tough rivals for Star

For years, Star Sports has dominated India's sports broadcasting ground, holding key cricket properties, including India’s home matches, ICC tournaments like the World Cup, and the IPL. However, with the rise of Sports18 and JioCinema, Star faced stiff competition.

This led to shared broadcasting rights for the IPL and the loss of exclusive rights to India’s home games, which were secured by its rivals Sports18 and JioCinema (all matches), while DD Sports has only ODI and T20I match rights. However, Star still has the ICC broadcasting rights.