JioHotstar outlined its next phase of streaming innovation at APOS 2026, positioning the future of the platform as increasingly conversational, interactive and commerce-ready. The discussion was led by Bharath Ram and Vijay Seshadri, who spoke about how consumer-first product design, artificial intelligence and large-scale engineering are being used to improve content discovery, engagement and transactions across devices.

In a session titled ‘India Streaming: The Product View’, held in conversation with Vivek Couto, the executives described how streaming is evolving beyond simply offering content libraries toward creating more seamless and personalised entertainment journeys.

More than 60 percent of users are choosing voice over text in JioHotstar’s conversational discovery experience.

India now has close to 100 million Connected TVs, and the focus is shifting to deeper engagement and viewing frequency.

IPL 2026 drove increased Connected TV adoption, with mobile-first users moving to larger screens.

AI-powered tools such as JAMS and interactive experiences are creating new opportunities across discovery, participation and commerce.

Ram said the platform is designed for a highly diverse consumer base that includes mobile-first viewers, Connected TV households and premium subscribers. Rather than creating separate products for every segment, JioHotstar focuses on identifying common viewing behaviours while tailoring experiences where necessary.

“A lot of product vision starts backwards from the consumer experience,” Ram said. “The sooner you can remove yourself out of the way and give consumers the content they want to watch and the experiences they want to go through, the retention cycle kicks in automatically.”

He added that the growth opportunity in Connected TV is no longer just about hardware penetration. With close to 100 million Connected TVs already in Indian homes, the challenge is increasingly about building engagement habits that extend across screens. JioHotstar cited IPL 2026 as a key example of mobile-first audiences upgrading to larger-screen viewing.

Seshadri discussed the technical demands of operating one of the world’s largest streaming platforms. During marquee live events, the platform must manage millions of concurrent interactions while handling subscription spikes that can approach five million requests per minute.

The focus, he said, is on building resilient systems that can scale rapidly without affecting the consumer experience during peak traffic moments.

A major theme of the session was content discovery. Seshadri argued that while streaming catalogues have expanded dramatically, discovery mechanisms have changed little over the past two decades.

“Nothing much has changed in content discovery in the last 15 to 20 years,” he said. “Conversational discovery, where users switch from typing phrases to having conversations with their systems, is a very key paradigm shift.”

JioHotstar’s conversational discovery feature, developed in partnership with OpenAI, is already showing strong adoption. According to the company, more than 60 percent of users choose voice input over text when both options are available. The experience combines natural-language interactions with visual recommendations to help viewers navigate large content libraries more intuitively.

Ram also highlighted JAMS, JioHotstar’s video intelligence layer that makes content machine-readable. By identifying people, products and objects within scenes, the platform can create more contextual experiences around recommendations, engagement and transactions.

“If you truly start peeling the layers of the onion and understanding what the items within a piece of content are, the separation between content and commerce starts thinning,” Ram said.

The executives suggested that this capability could eventually allow viewers to move seamlessly from watching content to discovering and purchasing products associated with what appears on screen.

JioHotstar pointed to initiatives such as ‘Jeeto Dhan Dhana Dhan’ and its integration with Swiggy as examples of viewers increasingly engaging with live content beyond passive consumption.

Seshadri said many of the technologies being built for conversational interfaces and AI-driven discovery have direct applications in commerce.

“The next sector to be disrupted is product commerce,” he said. “A platform like ours that can crack a seamless purchasing experience while watching content could see a transformative change over the next 12 months.”

The session concluded with JioHotstar positioning its future roadmap around three connected themes: conversational interfaces, deeper cross-screen engagement and contextual commerce integrated directly into the streaming experience.