After two weeks of offering the service free, India’s JioCinema Premium has revealed an annual subscription plan of INR999 ($12.13) for Warner Bros. Discovery content.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is behind Viacom18 and JioCinema. Warner Bros. Discovery and Viacom18 signed a multi-year agreement recently making JioCinema India’s new streaming home for HBO, Max Original and Warner Bros. content from May. The WBD content had previously been carried on the Disney-owned Star TV platform. But the deal with Star expired at the end of March.
Television series will premiere on JioCinema on the same day as the U.S. The deal includes current and future seasons of HBO’s “House of The Dragon,” “The Last of Us,” “Succession” and “The White Lotus,” and returning seasons of “True Detective: Night Country,” “Euphoria,” “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” and “Perry Mason.”
The popular Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament continues to be streamed free on JioCinema, as do Indian-produced premium films like “Vikram Vedha,” starring Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan.
Analyst Karan Taurani of Elara Capital said: “We believe the pricing is at the lower end of premium OTT [streaming] platforms annual pricing – Hotstar, Amazon, Netflix whose pricing is in the range of INR1,000-2,000 plus for an annual plan; however, we don’t see a large scale paid subscriber base due to this, as Indian audience is value driven and may not pay this much only for HBO/Warner Bros content.”
“Disney+ Hotstar has had the highest paid subs base (61 million paid subscriber base – pre IPL) in India primarily due to IPL, global content, web series, movies and catch up TV content; in order to scale up to that level for a paid subscriber base, JioCinema will need to expand its content offerings,” Taurani added.
RIL also owns India’s dominant cellular phone and broadband internet providers. Most Indian streaming services are also available at discounted rates via telecom providers.
“JioCinema may also bundle the HBO/Warner Bros content free for its premium Jio fibre subscribers or postpaid mobile subscribers, which have a higher ARPU [average revenue per user], as they have the best control at last mile due to a large 4G subscriber base and may not need to tie up with a third party OEM [original equipment manufacturer] or mobile operator,” Taurani said.
Meanwhile, RIL’s content arm, Jio Studios, which had unveiled a slate of 100 new films and TV shows that will play on Reliance’s streaming platforms, has added several Bhojpuri-language films to it.
The films include “Maai,” starring Dinesh lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’ and Amrapali Dubey; “Bewafa Sanam” (Pawan Singh, Smriti Sinha); “Khiladi” (Pradeep Pandey Chintu, Sahar Afsa); “Sajan Re Jhooth Mat Bolo” (Pradeep Pandey Chintu, Harshika Poonacha); “Tu Tu Main Main” (Ritesh Pandey, Yamini Singh, Madhu Sharma, Vikrant Singh); “Sanam Mere Humraz” (Ritesh Pandey, Harshika); “Tujhe Dekha To Ye Jana Sanam” (Khesari Lal Yadav, Yamini Singh); “Atit – Ek Prem Kahani” (Ritesh Pandey, Anara Gupta, Sailesha); “Suraksha” (Yash Kumar, Sudiksha Jha, Harshita Kashyap), “Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai” (Pawan Singh, Smriti Sinha, Tanushree Chatterji); “London Jake Phas Gaya Yaar” (Arvind Akela Kallu, Priyanka Rewari); “Des Me Nikla Hoga Chand” (Pradeep Pandey Chintu, Sahar Afsa); “Piya Pardesiya” (Ritesh Pandey, Priyanka Rewri); “Do Bihari Sab Pe Bhari” (Ankush-Raja, Akanksha Dubey, Priyanshu); and “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam” (Pradeep Pandey Chintu, Amrapali Dubey).
All these films will stream free on JioCinema.
