At APOS 2026, JioStar chief product officer Bharath Ram and chief architect Vijay Seshadri outlined how JioHotstar is developing its product and engineering capabilities to serve one of the world’s largest streaming audiences.
Speaking in a session titled India Streaming: The Product View, they discussed the role of consumer-focused design, artificial intelligence and large-scale engineering in shaping entertainment services. In conversation with Media Partners Asia chief executive Vivek Couto, Ram and Seshadri reflected on the changing nature of streaming, noting that attention is shifting from content availability towards improving discovery, encouraging engagement and creating consistent user experiences across devices and formats.
Speaking about serving one of the world’s largest streaming audiences, Ram began by addressing India’s diverse consumer base, which includes mobile-first users, connected television households and premium subscribers. He explained that rather than designing separate products for each segment, the approach is to identify common consumer behaviours while offering differentiated experiences where appropriate.
Ram said, “A lot of product vision starts backwards from the consumer experience. 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.”
Discussing the Connected TV ecosystem, Ram noted that with nearly 100 million devices already in use, the focus is shifting towards encouraging engagement and establishing viewing habits that extend across different screens. He highlighted the IPL season as an example of how JioHotstar has encouraged mobile-first audiences to explore Connected TV viewing.
Adding to this, Seshadri reflected on the engineering challenges of operating at scale, where product and technology must work together to provide consistent user experiences during periods of high demand. He noted that the task involves managing millions of concurrent interactions and handling subscription surges during major live events, reaching close to five million requests per minute. The emphasis, he explained, is on building resilient systems that can expand without affecting performance.
Vijay also stated that while much of the industry’s focus has been on generative AI, an equally significant opportunity lies in deriving deeper intelligence from existing content libraries, making them more discoverable, contextual and interactive.
Seshadri mentioned, “The next sector to be disrupted is product commerce. A platform like ours that can crack a seamless purchasing experience while watching content could see a transformative change over the next 12 months.”
From conversational interfaces and Connected TV to contextual commerce and interactive features, the discussion highlighted the platform’s focus on providing consistent user experiences across a changing streaming environment.
