“Coming soon…” reads the new website “jiostar.com”, the latest entrant into the Disney Star–Reliance Jio Cinema merger drama. For the past few weeks, social media and news channels alike have been following the amusing sequence of events triggered by a techie who approached Reliance to sell “jiohotstar.com” in a bid to fund his studies.
Dubai-based YouTubers and siblings Jivika and Jainam Jain purchased the domain from the unnamed software developer for a much smaller price after Reliance allegedly threatened legal action back in October. However, on Sunday, the Jain siblings offered Reliance the domain free of cost, in a twist that very few saw coming.
When THE WEEK reached out to the Jain siblings in October, they confirmed the purchase and said that the deal happened over the ICANN-accredited domain registrar, Namecheap Inc.
“If Reliance doesn’t want it, that’s fine too. We’ll continue sharing our updates..” said the siblings in the video posted earlier this week. And it looks like Viacom 18 has taken them seriously.
On Tuesday, several outlets reported the arrival of the new domain “jiostar.com”. With barely any details on the website, and no public statements from Viacom 18 or any other Reliance company for that matter, users on social media are guessing that the new merged OTT streaming platform would possibly be named “JioStar”.
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The USD 8.5 billion merger of Reliance Industries and Disney Star received the nod from the regulators, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the Competition Commission of India (CCI), back in August. When Reliance reported its second-quarter results, it announced that the merger would be expected to be completed in the third quarter of the current financial year, FY 2024-25.