In a fantastic feat, Mukesh Ambani’s Jiocinema has bagged the deal for exclusive streaming rights of HBO and Warner Bros. This multi-year deal will bring to India popular TV shows Like Succession, The Lord Of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and the Harry Potter series.
The platform which is known for streaming the Indian Premier League and also FIFA 2022 has won Indians’ hearts yet again with this unprecedented deal. It will be a huge blow to its competitors who had till now been housing the content of the two banners. This collaboration came into the picture after all HBO content was taken down from Hotstar on March 31 following the end of their long contract.
A spokesperson from Warner Bros stated that this move was made to strengthen their regional business in the South Asian market. The Indian streaming services gained the exclusive streaming rights of not only Warner Bros. and HBO but also Discovery and Max which are other entertainment banners that have huge markets in India. The deal includes streaming current ongoing shows along with popular old shows and future releases. The list of movies and shows is varied and all of them are finally going to have a streaming house. Another good thing about the deal is that the release dates in India are going to be concurrent with that in the USA. This means that you won’t have to wait for OTT movies of these banners to release separately in India!
Alas, all good things come at a price. Jiocinema which has been functioning for free for several years now, will soon be making changes in its plans! The deal has now made the OTT platform the biggest competitor of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney and to stay in the competition, it is doing what needs to be done. While the Price structure is yet to be decided, Jiocinema will be keeping the IPL free for its viewers. The subscription plans too are going to be very affordable, allowing viewers from all cadres of the society to have easy access to the best Western content.
All in all, the deal has brought in an amazing opportunity for development for the Indian company. Along with that, the easy and cheap access to top-notch content from Warner Bros., HBO, Max and Discovery is what’s going to expand the horizons of Indians’ entertainment.