NEW DELHI: As part of a major drive to compete with Netflix and Amazon, Warner Bros Discovery has agreed to provide content for JioCinema, the broadcast venture of India’s Reliance company.
According to a joint statement from the entertainment companies, the agreement between Reliance and Viacom18 would make popular films and television series like Succession, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and the Harry Potter series available on Reliance’s JioCinema app.
Reuters had on Thursday quoted sources while reporting on the deal. The media unit of Reliance Industries, Network18 Media and Investments saw an increase of up to 13.5% in value after the Reuters story. However, the announcement conveyed the content relationship as a “new multi-year agreement” beginning next month.
The sources refused to disclose the financial details of the agreement.
The arrangement is a part of Warner Bros’ commitment to the South Asian market, according to Clement Schwebig, President for India, Korea, and Southeast Asia, as the company seeks to broaden the scope of its regional operations.
One source told Reuters that the collaboration would be exclusive and that JioCinema would host most of Warner’s high-profile programming. According to the insider, Warner cannot provide most of its well-known films to competitor Indian services like Disney, Hotstar and Amazon Prime Video.
The insider said, “It’s a deep exclusive arrangement that will make JioCinema the house of Warner, HBO in India.” JioCinema, which has gained popularity for airing the IPL cricket competition on the platform for free during the current season, would receive thousands of hours of streaming programming thanks to the content arrangement.
Disney had previously controlled the IPL digital streaming rights, which Viacom18 purchased from 2023 to 2027 for almost $2.9 billion. Reliance, Paramount Global (PARA.O), and Bodhi Tree, a partnership between James Murdoch and a former Star India executive named Uday Shankar, are among the shareholders of Viacom18.
Bodhi Tree has just invested $528 million in Viacom18. Until March 31, several of HBO’s most popular shows, including Succession, were available in India via the Disney Hotstar platform as part of a partnership between the two businesses that expired that day.
According to the source, Reuters, the Viacom-Warner transaction will result in the unification of the library and will contain, among other things, programming from HBO, Max, and Warner. Until now, Warner had a number of agreements with Indian streaming behemoths.
In a market where such platforms are becoming increasingly popular due to affordable data pricing, JioCinema is trying to compete with rivals like Netflix and Amazon.
JioCinema is a minor player at the moment. According to Media Partners Asia, Netflix dominates competitors in the subscription video-on-demand market, controlling a 39% revenue share in 2021 compared to the closest competitor, Hotstar’s 23%.
