Daybreak - Reliance wants to combine Hotstar and JioCinema into one mega app. Is it really a good idea?

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

About a month ago, news broke about Reliance's plans to merge Disney+ Hotstar with JioCinema after their Star-Viacom18 merger. While the merger is pending approvals from the Competition Commission of India, data from Google Play Store data shows Disney+ Hotstar had over 500 million downloads while JioCinema had over 100 million downloads.While the idea makes sense from a consumer's perspective who has to deal with too many subscriptions and too many choices, things don't quite add up from a strategic perspective for Reliance.Tune in.DAYBREAK UNWIND RECOMMENDATIONS for "favourite murder mystery."Snigdha: We Have Always Lived in The Castle by Shirley JacksonRahel: Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene (The Phantom of Venice)Devansh: Blood on the Tracks by Shūzō OshimiVenkat: Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya, 2019 (movie)Vaidehi: Glass Onion: A Knives Out MysteryRohith: Jane Jaan, 2023 (movie)Ashish: Sharp Objects by Gillian FlynnHari: Dial M for MurderDaybreak is now on WhatsApp at [phone]. For next Thursday's Unwind, send us your recommendations to us as texts or voice notes. The theme is "favourite folk songs."

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too? It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. What do you think of the idea of Disney Hot Star and Geo Cinema merging together into a single OTT platform? You probably heard the news about Reliance's plan to merge Disney Hot Star with GeoCinema after their Star Wycom 18 merger.

The merger is pending approvals from the Competition Commission of India or CCI. But the question is, why one single OTT platform? Because data from Google Play Store showed us that Disney Hot Star had over 500 million downloads, while Geo Cinema had over 100 million. A few months ago, my colleague, Praveen Gopalakrishnan, had written in his popular newsletter, The NutGraf, how having two separate entities could give Gio the ability to segment the market better than anybody else. He had said that Gio's challenge and opportunity now is no longer on technology,

operations or advertising. It is an exercise in branding and positioning. Having two separate platforms would have led to all kinds of interesting combinations. The most obvious way to do it would be to make Disney Hot Star into a premium subscription and Geo Cinema into a mass advertising one. So Disney Hot Star would get all the HBO shows, the Marvel movies, the Disney cartoons, plus all those award-winning documentaries. And Geo Cinema would get all the mass market content plus the IPL. Another way to do it, Praveen says, would be to segment the market by region, make Disney Hot Star into the regional content powerhouse and let GeoCinema

keep the rest. Yet another way to do it would be to split it by use case. Geo Cinema could be an exclusive sports destination, maybe like the Indian version of ESPN, and it could become the one platform that streams the IPL, international cricket, tennis and a lot more. And Disney hot star could be the entertainment powerhouse. As you can see, the possibilities are endless. So why then is Reliance choosing to combine the two into one single OTT platform? Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nekda Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleague Rahal Philippos and I will come to you with

one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Thursday, the 10th of October. You see, the CCI has already warned that the Disney Resortals, alliance media merger could harm competition. The body privately won the two companies, mainly expressing its concerns about their grip over the rights to broadcast cricket. So it asked the companies to explain within 30 days why an investigation should not be ordered. So it seems that the CCI's main concern is focused on the cricket rights being concentrated into one entity. Of course, there may be secondary concerns as well.

Reliance on its part, meanwhile, has apparently offered concessions. There are reports that it plans to freeze ad rates for two years and may even hive off some of its regional TV channels to ensure that it is not in a dominant position in some markets. The thing is, if you really think about it, there are no elegant solutions around cricket broadcast strides. The failed Sony and Z merger has made that much more confidence. complicated, and Praveen says Reliance can't just offload some of the cricket broadcasting rights

to another player, even if it wants to, or even if it is compelled by the CCI to do it. So, is the plan to combine Hot Star and Geo Cinema some sort of a concession to the CCI? Well, there are indications that say otherwise, that this is a conscious strategic choice on part of Reliance. The Economic Times story on this news cited a source who said, and I'm quoting, having a single OTT platform will help in saving costs and building a one-stop OTT destination that will give strong competition to YouTube in the advertising video-on-demand segment and Netflix and Prime in the subscription segment.

End quote. Okay. Yes, that could be the reason. But do we really know Reliance? as a company that optimises for cost in the short term while sacrificing the long-term advantage of having two OTT platforms? Not really, right? We have to remember that once they go through with this, if you kill an OTT platform, you can't just bring it back later. So why would Reliance make that choice without first seeing how two separate platforms would work out? We're basically

talking about a future where a single OTT platform will try to simultaneously take on YouTube with advertising and Netflix and Prime with subscriptions. It feels like the streaming version of a super app. For both Netflix and YouTube though, it could be a relief if Reliance combined everything into one app because it would give them both a chance. Even if you account for the costs, Reliance having two streaming apps seems to offer it greater chances of success over having a single app. Seen through this lens, the single OTT app does feel more like a concession.

But like I said earlier, this seems more like a strategy. But Ravine says that this just means that Reliance is planning not for the long term, but for the long, long term. For example, some people believe that over a longer period of time, all the differences between advertising and subscriptions in streaming are going to disappear. Reliance seems to be working with that future in mind. We are essentially talking about a future where streaming looks a lot like television today. In fact, there are signs that it has already started.

Netflix is a subscription OTT platform that is moving towards advertising, whereas YouTube is an advertising platform that is also scaling up subscription. Maybe Reliance believes that it is inevitable for any OTT platform to do both, so it might as well get started early. But having said that, the biggest change that a single OTT platform could bring without doubt is that it is ideal from a consumer's perspective. We've already heard a lot about how broken streaming is for the consumer because there are just too many choices, too many subscriptions, and it is all too expensive.

One default subscription for everyone using one app sounds like a great solution for us. Like Praveen says, we don't know the second and third order effects of this, but we will know once we get there and experience it. Maybe we'll be the first ones to see what it's really like. Hang in there because we still have the Unwind segment coming up. Stay tuned. Hello and welcome back to the fifth edition of Daybreak Unwined. It's Thursday and you know what that means. Snikda and I are here to help you

and to help each other figure out what to do this weekend. Right. Whether it's chilling at home, reading a book or watching something nice or going to check out cool new place in town. So we were on a break last week because of Gandhi Jainty but before we went

we asked you all to send us your recommendation for your favourite murder mystery. But before that why are we so obsessed with murder mystery? Re, Rahil. I don't know. Is it that fascination with, like, evil? Yeah.

Also, I think in some way it makes you feel like, okay, I would never do something like that, but I would love to know how people do it. Also, because it's that one rule in life that you're not supposed to break, which is to take somebody else's life. So whoever does it fascinates us. Yeah, this is a very morbid, ominous kind of segment. But yeah, there is that kind of curiosity about what would motivate a killer.

That's exactly why, say, Mind Hunter did so well, right? Because it gives you this kind of sneak peek into a murderer's brain and what they could be thinking. Yeah, yeah. Also, you know, I was reading about it. And some psychologists say that it's also, you know, watching murder mysteries or reading murder mysteries also have like an evolutionary benefit for people. because it forces your brain to pick clues. Right?

It's almost like a competition? Correct. Right to the writer of the book or like with a director for a movie or a show. Like it's like I'm going to figure out who the murderer is before you tell me. Exactly. The classic who done it. We all do it. Yeah.

And if you figure it out before like you feel so great about yourself. Also, you know, I was wondering because there are basically two types of murder. right? There's one where ultimately in the end, you know, order is always restored. Like, you know, your Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie. And then there's the other one where, you know, your questions are not answered. And I think the kind of stuff that you like, I think it also is a very personality thing. Don't you think? Like, I would imagine a person with, you know, who has a little bit of OCD would like the first one. I 100% prefer the, former to the latter. The latter freaks me out.

Then I'm up for days just thinking, oh my God, what could happen? How is it going to play out? What are all the possibilities, you know, possible ways that could play out? Yeah. And for me, it's the opposite. Like, it's the one that does, that leaves you with more questions than answers. You prefer those? Yeah, I love it. Like, and I think those are the, those are the ones usually that are slightly darker. Yeah. So true. Yeah. So you have to have a certain kind of, you have to be in a certain kind of mind space also to read those kind of books and watch those kind of movies and I think my recommendation

is also one of those. I'm so curious to know what is your recommendation this week? So if you listen to daybreak you already know this author because I've spoken about her even in the last unwind segment where we were doing the one on best opening lines. Yeah. It was remember I mentioned. Shirley Jackson. Exactly. There we go. So that was the haunting of Hillhouse. And this is this other book, by her, which is also a brilliant book, and it's called We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Interesting. And it's about the Blackwood family, mainly the two protagonists are two sisters, okay, Mary Cat and Constance. Okay?

And Mary Cat is the narrator. So what really stands out about this book when you read it is her voice, Mary Cat's voice. Like, it's almost like you can hear the way Shirley Jackson has written. It's just, I don't know, I don't have the right words to describe it. You know, she's innocent, but also there's something very almost sinister about Marri-Cat. Shirley Jackson seems like the master of this genre. She really is. So essentially it's about a murder.

Like, you know, a couple of family members are murdered. And then ultimately, they're these two sisters and an uncle, you know, who cannot walk, who's on a wheelchair. And they live in the family estate. and the way she describes the estate, it has this garden, very wild, very fairy tale-esque, you know, which you would not expect in a murder mystery book, right? And it's also a story of alienation because of the previous murders,

Constance was accused of killing her family, right? But ultimately, she's let out of jail. So the whole village kind of has ostracized that family. that family. Right? And then some other things happen. I'm not going to tell you. You should read this book.

Cool. Interesting. Now it's your turn. Okay. Mine is very different vibe from yours. Yeah. The first one, like you said, order is restored. I love that.

I need neat, neat happy endings where it's complete and like all of that. I need all my, you know, loose ends to be tied up neatly. my recommendation this week is something that we I'm sure everyone's read when they were kids it's very nostalgic recommendation Nancy Drew Oh my God, I love Nancy Drew The whole series, there's movies and shows and stuff

which I haven't watched yet But when I was a kid I wanted to be Nancy Drew What a smart young woman You know solving mysteries Like just busy being a detective I absolutely love that I think she always got like You know she was always always

always in the right time at the right place. Right, all the time. Yeah. You know, that's just too much good luck happening. But I love it. But yeah, it was exactly that, right? It was the former of the two types of murder mysteries. Exactly.

Not too much murder, at least like the early, I remember the older Nancy Drew's, there weren't too many murders happening. But I do think that the movies that came out later were darker. They were a little darker. Yeah, then classic Nancy. Right. But my recommendation for all our listeners and for you, Snickda,

is to revisit Nancy True. I think that is something we need to do. Which one do you remember any particular one? It's so hard to pick one but I think if I absolutely had to, it would be the one where she went to Venice. It's called Phantom of Venice. Have you read that one? I don't remember.

But yeah, it was really, really good. I remember being like truly on the edge of my seat the whole time through. But there was so many of those books, right? It was only much later that I realized that apparently there's a team of ghost writers that had written all the books. There wasn't one author. So the writer was Carolyn Keen. Yeah.

So she wasn't always the one writing? No. There were a bunch of ghost writers. Okay. Right. Now I think it's time for our first recommendation from our listener, Devan. She very kindly sent us a voice note. Awesome.

Very interesting recommendation he has. So this is the manga which kind of traumatized me. So it was written by Oishi. So basically, I'll start my narration from here. Imagine witnessing your own mother committing a horrific crime for Seichi, who is a shy and introspective teenager, this unthinkable reality shatters his world. So in this manga, Blood of Tracks, it's a gripping psychological drama. It's not only a murder mystery, which revolves around Seichi's life.

and her mother and his mother, sorry, Seiko. So what the Seiko does is that she pushes Seychi's cousin off a cliff. So basically, the reader is forced to think that, was it a movement of madness or a calculated act? As the story progress, you'll see Seychi struggling with guilt, fear, confusion, and begins to question everything about this overprotective mother's love. So, is her, so is Seiko, Seiki's mother's devotion is genuine or a bit manipulative.

So further you'll read, you'll be joining Seiji on a dark journey to uncover the truth behind his mother's shocking actions. So the reader is compelled to think about the answers which has the potential to destroy Seiji. Rahil, have you read any manga? I haven't. Have you? Only one. I never really got into it. But this friend of mine, shout out to Johnny.

He made me read this book called... It's not murder mystery. It's horror. It's called Uzumaki. And it's by this very... It's illustrated and written by this very famous Japanese writer called Junji Ito. Oh, lovely. And it's so weird.

Like, I think after reading that, I was like, okay, I think I think I think I can read manga. Oh. The whole town is haunted by a spiral. And it starts appearing in everything. Like people's hair starts curling, you know, those clouds become spiral. It's very strange. I haven't heard of this book, but that's definitely the kind of storyline that I would

associate with manga. Yeah. Interesting. Very interesting. All right. Next up, we have another listener's recommendation. His name is Venkut. Take it away, Venkut.

Hello Ken, this is Venkert. My favorite murder mystery recommendation is this Telugu movie called Agent Sainawirinva Satraya. This movie is like the Desi version of the Sherlock Holmes. It was based on real events happened in the southern part of India. It is a blend of dark comedy, crime and fentabulous acting from none other than Naveen Porishetti. It is available in prime video with subtitles and is highly recommended. Okay, that is great. I've actually heard about this movie. before. I also looked it up on IMD, I'll be honest, before we recorded this segment and everyone is in agreement. Apparently, Navin Polichetti's comedic timing and this movie is fantastic. And it's one of those movies, a lot of people say, where you have to kind of give it a little time.

And then it really picks up. Okay, okay. And yeah, it's really well done. Thank you, Venkat, for that recommendation. We will definitely be checking it out. Yeah, also like such a great recommendation. for a murder mystery because it's also comedy? Yeah, somewhat. I wasn't expecting that. Right. Okay, our next recommendation is from Ashesha Garwal. Ashish, actually, I just watched the mini-series that was based on this book.

It's Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, the writer of Gone Girl. Did you watch Gone Girl? I have, yes. I've read the book also. It's brutal. But, yeah, I watched the TV series with Amy and. Adams who plays this reporter right and she has to go back to her she's struggling you know existential crisis she's going through and her editor sends her back to a hometown where she doesn't want to go because

she's not very close to her family obviously there are some things that are left unset and she has to investigate the really brutal murder of two young teenage girls in her hometown and that's how it's and such brilliant performance by Amy Adams she's so good so good so I don't know. Ashes do tell us if the series is a good adaptation or not because I've not read the book. Okay. So our next recommendation is from Harry, without which this list would actually be quite incomplete. When we're talking about murder mystery, how can we not mention a Hitchcock?

Yes, there we go. So, Harry's recommendation is Dial M for Murder. It's a 1954 American crime thriller. Text us and let us know if you've seen it. The WhatsApp number is going to be in the show notes. And we'll also call it out at the end of the segment. But yeah, tell us your favorite Hitchcock movie. I'd love to hear.

Sinkta, do you have a favorite? Birds and Psyching. Both. Like, yeah. I know so many people who watch birds and after that they have this phobia of birds. Wow. Okay. It is so creepy.

Hitchcock movies can really shake you up. Yeah. Yeah. So, Hari's recommendation is dialem. murder. It's a 1954 movie like I mentioned and it has an all-star cast. It stars Grace Kelly, Ray Milland, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson and it's supposed to be really, really great. It's actually based on a stage play that was written by an English playwright called Frederick Nott. Oh, this I didn't know. Yeah. So it's about this retired tennis player and his socialite wife.

kind of a classic storyline in that sense, right? He finds out that his wife is having an affair with a writer and he then plots his wife's murder so that he can inherit her fortune. So it's about how that kind of plays out. Oh, wow, I need to watch this one. Right, okay. We have a few more recommendations.

We don't have the time, so I'm just going to read them out. We have knives out, glass onion, a knives out mystery. Very good. Wehdahi from Wiesag has recommended it. It's got Daniel Craig, the James Bond guy. And then we have... Oh, this one is a good one. Rohit recommends Janeeja.

The Karina Kapoor movie. Exactly, yeah, with Jeddi Phaelavut and Vijay Verma. And it is shot in Dajling. They say it's set in Kalimpong. But so many scenes you can tell, oh, this is Dajling. They were shooting. So it's all mixed up, I think.

Yeah, they shot it in both places. Okay. Yeah, and she also speaks in Nepali. I was like... In the movie? Yeah. I don't remember this. Yeah, she's talking to Vijay Verma

and they're sitting at this restaurant and she doesn't like him. And she's asking the waiter to give him Piro... Classic. Like, really spicy for more chattnee. But yeah, that's a good one. All right, I think that brings us to the end of this segment, Rahil.

What's our theme for next week? Do you want to tell you? our listeners. We have an interesting one for next week. So wherever you are, I'm pretty sure that it is festive season in some form. Navratri, Durga, Puja, all of it works. The Shara. The Shara.

So our theme is actually folk music. I'm always looking for great recommendations with music as well. And I think folk songs would be a fun thing to listen to this time of the year. From all parts of the country. In your language, you know, from your region, we would love to hear. also we make a playlist out of it and we can share the link right let's do that yeah all right that's a wrap we'll see you guys next week don't forget to write to us our WhatsApp number is 89711-08379 if you're living outside India then just add plus 91