Indian Business Tycoon Owned Streaming Platform Taps Warner Bros For HBO Content

Reliance Industries Limited's broadcast venture Viacom18 tapped Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc WBD to help its streaming platform JioCinema launch Hollywood content onto the platform, including popular movies and shows such as Succession, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and the Harry Potter series.

Reliance's JioCinema app will be able to stream Warner Bros and its HBO content under the multi-year deal starting from May, intensifying rivalry with Netflix Inc NFLX and Amazon.Com Inc AMZN, Reuters reports.

HBO Original, Max Original, and Warner Bros. Television series will premiere on JioCinema on the same day as the U.S., the companies said. The deal would be exclusive, seeing most of Warner's marquee content on the JioCinema platform.

The content deal will bring thousands of hours of streaming content onto JioCinema, streaming the IPL cricket tournament for free in the ongoing season.

Viacom18 won the IPL digital streaming rights from 2023 - 2027 for around $2.9 billion, rights which Walt Disney Co DIS previously held. 

Viacom18's shareholders include Reliance, Paramount Global PARA, and Bodhi Tree, a joint venture between James Murdoch and a former Star India executive, Uday Shankar.

"These marquee deals from IPL to HBO are great for not only user acquisition but also for stickiness and mind share," said Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research.

According to Media Partners Asia, Netflix outperforms rivals in the subscription video-on-demand market, commanding a 39% share by revenue in 2021 compared to nearest rival Hotstar's 23%.

JioCinema is seeking to compete with rivals, including Netflix and Amazon, in a market where such platforms are gaining traction courtesy of low data prices.

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Price Action: WBD shares closed lower by 1.80% at $12.58 on Wednesday.

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