Mukesh Ambani builds record screens as a cricketer by adding more than 100 movies and TV serials

The expansion comes at the same time as JioCinema starts charging for content, though the exact pricing strategy is still being finalized, head of media and content business Jyoti Deshpande said in an interview. The new games will be released before the end of Indian Premier League cricket next month, and viewers can still watch matches for free until then, he said.

The sprawling Ambanis conglomerate aims to be a global media and online streaming giant. Last year, Viacom18 Media Pvt., a joint venture between Paramount Global and billionaires Reliance Industries Ltd., offered Disney and Sony Group Corp. the digital rights to one of the world’s fastest-growing sports events, considered critical. Any media company can attract eyeballs in India.

The potential viewership in India, home to 1.4 billion people, a growing middle class and expanding Internet access, is huge. JioCinema garnered over 1.47 billion video views in the opening weekend of the IPL in April and had 22 million viewers for the match on Wednesday.

It remains a tough market for global streaming platform giants to crack: Netflix has lowered its fees to attract price-conscious users, while a strong local cinema culture means Indian viewers can be picky about what they watch online. Both price and content are in mind for the JioCinemas extension, Deshpande said.

The plan is to keep the tariffs simple for viewers,” he said. Currently, the streaming space is dominated by western content. Jio Studios wants to be a catalyst for cross-pollination of talent. We want to get as Indian as possible,” he said. said.

It includes publishing movies and series from thrillers and romance to biopics in languages ​​like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Gujarati. It also releases new and original films produced by Jio Studios, such as Bollywood starrer Shah Rukh Khans Dunki and Amitabh Bachchans Section 84. Jio Studios has recently announced a multi-year, multi-film collaboration with SVF Entertainment for the Bengali market.

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