JioHotstar has partnered with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT-branded search experience to India’s most widely used streaming service, enabling nearly 500 million monthly users to search for content through voice or typed natural language instead of traditional menu navigation.
The partnership will embed OpenAI’s technology directly into the JioHotstar app, replacing keyword-driven searches with an assistant that can interpret contextual and emotionally nuanced requests. Rather than manually searching for titles, viewers can describe their family situation or personal quirks and receive tailored suggestions accordingly. The tool is designed to work alongside live sports coverage, giving users conversational access to match information, player data and key moments in real time.
This agreement is designed to work both ways. JioHotstar’s catalog consists of over 300,000 hours of programming in 19 languages, drawn from its broadcast network of over 100 channels and original licensed content, which also appears on ChatGPT itself. Users who request the chatbot to display suggestions will receive recommendations with direct links to the relevant JioHotstar titles.
JioHotstar’s parent company is Indian media giant JioStar, which was formed through the merger of Disney’s Star India and Reliance’s Viacom18.
“AI is a transformative change for the media and entertainment industry. It will fundamentally disrupt every aspect of the value chain, from conceptualization and production to discovery and monetization,” said Uday Shankar, Vice Chairman, JioStar. “Our partnership with OpenAI will enable viewers to discover, engage with, and even curate content simply by using their voice. This is a fundamental reimagining of the entertainment experience, one that is culture-forward and feels deeply personal to every viewer.”
Fiji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI, added, “Traditionally, entertainment is a one-way experience of passively consuming content, but AI completely changes that dynamic. Through our partnership with JioHotstar, we bring personalized AI directly into entertainment and live sports, turning every moment into an opportunity for deeper engagement.”
This experience will be introduced in stages, initially with a limited feature set and then more broadly in both on-demand and live formats.
With this announcement, JioHotstar becomes one of the first major streaming platforms in India to embed a named AI assistant into the core of its product, as India’s digital entertainment market becomes increasingly crowded and services compete not just on library size but on intelligence and personalization.
