When cricket and Koffee aren’t enough, JioHotstar wants to make 'Sparks' fly

Daybreak

What happens when India’s biggest streaming platform decides it’s no longer satisfied with just airing Koffee with Karan and cricket? And it now wants to take on YouTube and Instagram?

You get Sparks–an ambitious experiment by Jiohotstar that’s is set on winning over Gen Z viewers, one short video at a time.

In February, right before the IPL kicked off, Jiohotstar launched Sparks. It is a free, creator-led platform of bite-sized episodes featuring the likes of Tanmay Bhat, Zakir Khan, Ranveer Brar, and Elvish Yadav. On paper, it might sound like just another experiment with content. But it is actually a marked product shift the platform is making after its merger with Disney’s India business. And at the heart of this strategic move is a 25-member team that includes former top executives from YouTube and Instagram.

But let’s be real. This is like David trying to beat not one, but two Goliaths, that too on their home turf. Add to that the fact that this is a space where the rules are always shifting, creators are supremely loyal, and content never sleeps

In today's episode, host Snigdha Sharma is joined by The Ken reporter Rounak Kumar Gunjan who dug deeper to find an answer to one big question: can a streaming giant reinvent itself as a scroll-worthy destination?

Tune in.

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