India’s Creator Economy Just Went OTT—JioHotstar Sparks a New Era
New content formats blur the lines between OTT, short video, and Gen Z fandom
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Spotlight on SportVot: Disrupting Grassroots Sports Broadcasting
SportVot is a Mumbai-based sports-tech startup that has developed a multi-sport over-the-top (OTT) platform dedicated to live-streaming local sports events across India. They are now expanding globally by unlocking a B2B SaaS business and showcasing grassroots sports streaming around the world!
By providing an accessible digital space, SportVot enables emerging athletes to showcase their talents, thereby bridging the gap between grassroots sports and wider recognition.
Founding Team and Vision
Established in 2019 by co-founders Sidhhant Agarwal (CEO), Shubhangi Gupta (CMO), and Yash Bhagwatkar (COO), SportVot was born from a shared passion for sports and a commitment to democratizing access to sports content. The founders recognized a significant gap in the coverage of local sports and sought to empower athletes by providing a platform that offers visibility and opportunities for discovery.
Funding Milestones
In a notable funding milestone, SportVot secured ₹9.4 crore in a Pre-Series A round led by Omidyar Network India, with participation from Anicut Capital, StartupLynk, Ventana Ventures, and existing investors such as Capital A, Ankur Capital, SucSEED Indovation Fund, and Marwah Sports. This infusion of capital is aimed at expanding SportVot's technological capabilities and product offerings to enhance sports participation across India.
Cap Table Insights
As of the latest funding round, institutional investors hold approximately 42.38% of SportVot's total shareholding, while the founding team retains a 37.56% stake. An ESOP pool accounts for 10%, with the remaining shares distributed among enterprise investors (5.05%), angel investors (4.56%), and other investors (0.45%) [Source: Tracxn]
Impact and Future Prospects
SportVot has made significant strides in digitizing grassroots sports, having enabled the live streaming of over 100,000 games across more than 15 sports disciplines. The platform's partnerships with organizations such as the Brahmaputra Volleyball League in Assam, the Maharashtra State Kabaddi Association, the Football Delhi Association, and the Nashik District Cricket Association underscore its commitment to nurturing local talent. With the recent funding, SportVot aims to scale its operations further, aspiring to digitize over 500,000 games both within India and internationally, thereby providing unprecedented opportunities for emerging athletes.
For a deeper insight into SportVot's journey and vision, you can watch the Pressplay podcast with co-founders Sidhhant and Shubhangi:
Pressplay Podcast with Sportvot
Agenda
India’s Streaming Stack Is Fragmented— “Sparks” Targets the Gaps
How JioHotstar’s Sparks is creating a new streaming category for Gen Z and digital Bharat
The Creator Economy Is Becoming Platform-Native
Strategic Leverage for Jio: Distribution, Data, Depth
The Monetization Shift: From SVOD to Engagement Economics
The Global Implication: India Is Exporting Formats Now
And….Action!
India’s Streaming Stack Is Fragmented—Sparks Targets the Gaps
I know it has been a lot of JioHotstar off late on “Streaming in India”, however this latest offering is innovative, cutting edge and “creator” IP driven in streaming; therefore worth the analysis!
What is JioHotstar's SPARKS?
SPARKS is JioHotstar’s new flagship creator-led content slate, designed to bring India’s top digital creators into a professionally produced, OTT-first environment.
At its core, SPARKS is:
A creator-first initiative: featuring India’s most followed YouTubers, comedians, gamers, influencers, and performers
20+ exclusive original shows across 10 genres, including reality, dating, food, astrology, game shows, comedy, and more
Entirely free to watch—monetized through ads, bundled within Jio's digital ecosystem
Formatted for episodic drop cycles (daily to weekly), with episodes ranging between 14 to 45 minutes
Designed to offer interactive, immersive, and influencer-powered storytelling
Format Design and Innovation
What makes SPARKS distinctive is that it's:
OTT-native in production quality and structure
YouTube-native in tone, creators, and viewer familiarity
Short-form adaptable in runtime and format
This means:
Episodes are ideal for repackaging into vertical video clips on Reels, Shorts, and Jio’s own platforms
The formats can fuel 360° content campaigns (behind-the-scenes, bloopers, fan Q&As)
Shows are crafted with audience participation, social sharing, and virality in mind
For example:
"Victim ya Victor" lets fans influence outcomes
"Love Life Lafde" includes real fan stories and dilemmas
"Ishq Interrupted" blends roasting, dating, and chaotic gameplay fit for TikTok-style promotion
1. How JioHotstar’s Sparks is creating a new streaming category for Gen Z and digital Bharat
India has three clear streaming segments:
Prestige AVOD/SVOD (Netflix, Prime Video, JioHotstar originals, SonyLIV, Zee5, Hoichoi, aha, ManoramaMAX, SunNXT)
Mass-market AVOD (Amazon MX Player, YouTube, ShareChat, Moj)
Short-form + UGC (Reels, YouTube Shorts, Roposo, Chingari)
What Sparks does:
It occupies the middle layer—low-cost but high-engagement creator-led formats that appeal to Tier-1 through Tier-3 cities. There is no subscription barrier, making it mass accessible, but the production values and interactivity give it an edge over pure UGC.
This creates a new vertical:
OTT-native creator content, optimized for mobile-first, vertical-first, fan-driven storytelling. Think of it as:
“MTV Reality + YouTube Shorts + Live Commerce” for Gen Z and digital Bharat.
2. The Creator Economy Is Becoming Platform-Native
For years, creators have monetized via brand deals and YouTube revenue shares. But they’ve remained platform-agnostic.
JioHotstar is changing that. Sparks:
Locks creators into exclusive format deals
Gives them large-scale distribution
Turns them into format IP anchors (like how Netflix did with reality show hosts)
This builds IP equity for both sides:
JioHotstar gets sticky formats, recurring seasons, and in-platform loyalty
Creators get long-form storytelling exposure, new monetization pipelines (ads, licensing, maybe merch next)
This is TikTok’s creator economy strategy... now inside OTT.
3. Strategic Leverage for Jio: Distribution, Data, Depth
Jio’s real advantage isn’t just content—it’s distribution.
Sparks is “free” but integrated into the Jio recharge ecosystem
Each recharge becomes a content acquisition play
Jio now has IP [Jio Studios, Sports Teams, Fashion Weeks, Disney+ Hotstar’s slates etc], telco distribution, ad tech (Jio Ads), OTT, and retail commerce (JioMart) in one stack
What does this enable?
First-party user data: Every show watched feeds insights into ad delivery and personalization
Cross-platform retargeting: Spark fans can be shown JioAds, offered recharge bundles, or led to commerce deals
Content-as-a-Service: Jio can license Sparks formats or remix them for other properties (e.g. JioHotstar’s reality vertical, IPL content)
This becomes a content flywheel, not just a slate.
4. The Monetization Shift: From SVOD to Engagement Economics
SVOD fatigue is real. Indian users don’t want to subscribe to 4 platforms. But they will watch short, mobile-native, creator-first shows for free.
Jio’s bet is that ads + data + bundling will outperform subscriptions for this layer.
What to expect:
Embedded brand integrations (e.g. snacks during Game of Greed, dating apps in Ishq Interrupted)
Interactive commerce (scan-to-buy fashion in Love Life Lafde?)
Loyalty incentives linked to Jio recharges (watch 3 Sparks shows = ₹20 cashback, for example)
This is where format meets funnel—each piece of content is a user acquisition engine.
5. The Global Implication: India Is Exporting Formats Now
The Sparks Format Advantage: Designed to Travel
The “7-Days Live” Reality Show: The live format hosted by Anubhav Singh Bassi has all the elements of a binge-worthy concept. Featuring two radically different personalities locked into a live-streaming setup for seven days, it mirrors the intimacy of Love Is Blind and the unpredictability of Bigg Boss. This could easily evolve into a scalable franchise built for interactivity and real-time engagement.
Game of Greed: Hosted by Abhishek Malhan, this Sparks original plays out like a TikTok-meets-Jeopardy experience. The format pits participants in high-stakes decisions around trust and ambition—making it a format that can travel globally across social platforms and reality content bundles.
Yeh Kya Bana Diya: With Chef Ranveer Brar reacting to viral food experiments (think toothpaste milkshake or fish fry jalebi), this format is already engineered for food TikTok virality. Brar’s raw reactions and storytelling make it ripe for meme culture and culinary cringe-reactions, a genre with universal appeal.
Together, these formats reflect JioHotstar’s bigger play—shorter, punchier, creator-led shows that blend live interaction, fan engagement, and social shareability, optimized for vertical screens and Gen Z attention spans.
+ This makes it ripe for:
International licensing to Southeast Asia, MENA, even LATAM
VC investment into format startups and production houses that can build for this model
Cross-over plays with gaming (imagine Sparks x JioGames Arcade tie-ins)
Final Reflection
Sparks is not just “fun new shows.” It’s a systemic bet on:
The next version of Indian entertainment
OTT’s transition to creators’ IPs
JioHotstar’s ambition to be India’s first truly interactive, creator-led, distribution-native streaming network
Expect imitators to emerge. But JioHotstar has the bandwidth—literally and figuratively—to lead.
After the success of Khakee: The Bihar Chapter, Netflix brings a new crime drama to the franchise with Khakee: The Bengal Chapter. Created by Neeraj Pandey and based on true events, the series looks at the murky world of crime and corruption in West Bengal. It’s a layered story of law enforcement, political power plays, and the human cost of justice—anchored by gritty realism and a strong regional flavor.
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