Kevin Vaz, CEO–Entertainment, JioStar, outlined India’s rapidly expanding content landscape and JioStar’s growing global influence during his address at the Asia TV Forum & Market 2025 in Singapore.

Speaking at a packed session titled ‘Powering the Next Wave of a Billion Imaginations,’ Vaz detailed how India is entering a pivotal era where entertainment, technology, and massive audience scale are converging to shape the future of global storytelling.

According to a JioStar press release, Vaz said India’s young and digitally active population is redefining how stories are created, consumed and monetised. With a population of 1.4 billion and a median age of 29, India, he noted, offers one of the most dynamic and diverse entertainment markets in the world. The country’s linguistic, cultural, and creative range — from 22 official languages and over 1,500 dialects to an industry producing more than 200,000 hours of television content, 1,800 films, and over 400 web series annually — has positioned it as a global content powerhouse.

Vaz highlighted that India’s entertainment acceleration continues to be powered by both television and digital platforms. The country today has 900 million television viewers, 900 million internet users, 500 million social media users, and more than 85 million connected TV devices, creating a scale that is driving convergence between storytelling, technology and immersive digital experiences.

At the centre of this shift, he said, is JioStar. On television, the network commands a 35% market share with over 90 channels across 10 languages, reaching 760 million viewers every month and consistently featuring five of the top 10 shows across genres. On digital, JioHotstar has crossed one billion downloads on Google Play and engages over 400 million monthly active users. Its entertainment and sports offerings now reach 99 percent of India’s connected TV universe.

Speaking about the company’s content slate, Vaz pointed to JioStar’s ability to cater to every age group, from women-led narratives that spark household conversations to high-octane non-fiction formats that attract young and male audiences. He also underlined the network’s growing kids’ ecosystem and its efforts to bring the best global entertainment to Indian households through JioHotstar.

On sports, Vaz said JioStar has firmly established itself as the home of premium sports in India, with the widest and most diverse portfolio of tournaments available on a single platform.

Looking ahead, he described the company’s focus areas, including AI-enabled content creation, deeper connected TV expansion, new storytelling formats such as micro-dramas, and enhanced global distribution of Indian stories.

Vaz concluded his address by reaffirming JioStar’s long-term vision — to move beyond content distribution and build a global imagination ecosystem where culture, creativity, technology, and data seamlessly come together to redefine how stories are told and experienced.