Jio wants a piece of India’s billion-dollar Smart TV market

India’s Smart TV market is worth nearly $6 billion in revenue, with 13.4 million units sold—and Jio, India’s largest telecom company under Reliance, is looking to get a slice of that.

The company has launched JioTele OS, a new Smart TV operating system that aims to take on Samsung’s Tizen, LG’s WebOS, and Xiaomi's FireOS. Jio is calling it a "next-gen platform", promising AI-powered recommendations, seamless OTT integration, cloud gaming, and lag-free 4K performance.

For now, Jio isn’t saying whether its OS is built on Android TV—which raises some eyebrows. What we do know is that it’ll support major OTT platforms (like Disney+ Hotstar), live TV, and let you control everything with a single remote. It also promises deep integration of regional and global content, aiming to give Indian users better access to local programming.

JioTele OS-powered TVs will go on sale from February 21 (no pricing yet), starting with models from Thomson, Kodak, BPL, and JVC. Jio says more brands will join later, and it’s actively working with other manufacturers to expand the lineup. The company is also committing to regular software updates, which means more apps, better security, and future-proofing—at least on paper.

Jio is entering a highly competitive market where Samsung’s Tizen OS leads with 16% share, followed closely by LG (15%) and Xiaomi (12%). To stand out, JioTele OS will need strong app support—because if it doesn’t offer the same ecosystem, that could be a dealbreaker.

Still, Jio has a history of shaking up industries—it did it with JioFiber and JioPhone. If JioTele OS gets traction, we could be looking at India’s first real Smart TV alternative. Whether this is the beginning of something big or just another walled garden remains to be seen.