After Airtel, Jio to take on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video? Here’s what telco is planning
Reliance Jio's entry into India's telecom sector a couple of years back caused a lot of ripples, forcing the other operators to bring down their prices to a level they are saying is unviable. Now, if a report from FactorDaily is believed, Jio is in talks with 18 to 20 production houses to have exclusive video content across multiple formats on its platform.
By: Techenonik | New Delhi | Published: December 20, 2017 5:38 PM
Jio is reportedly in talks with director-producer Vikram Bhatt and Roy Kapur Films. (Source: PTI)
Reliance Jio’s entry into India’s telecom sector a couple of years back caused a lot of ripples, forcing the other operators to bring down their prices to a level they are saying is unviable. Now, if a report from FactorDaily is believed, Jio is in talks with 18 to 20 production houses to have exclusive video content across multiple formats on its platform. Currently, Jio is eyeing content across formats like movies, short films, reality series, comedy and short videos spanning genres like comedy, reality shows, food shows, travel and even education to take on the already existing players like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. “There is so much of video content out there for streaming… but with original and exclusive content the viewer will always come back to one platform,” a source close to the company was quoted as saying in the report.
As per the report, Jio is in talks with director-producer Vikram Bhatt and Roy Kapur Films while Arre, AltBalaji and Viacom will offer exclusive content on Jio too. This is an interesting speculation as Jio’s content platform ‘JioTv’ had recently started streaming Bose: Dead/Alive, a series produced by AltBalaji on its platform. This report comes days after Jio had secretly launched a web version of its JioTV live streaming service. However, the website was later taken down and the website shows an “Under Construction” sign.
Vikram Malhotra, CEO and founder of Abundantia Entertainment, has confirmed that his company is in conversation with Jio and is considering a few different content formats. Most production houses see comedy as a huge opportunity and Jio provides the 4G network needed to stream that content online.
It is also being reported that Jio is looking to produce original content in regional languages with an aim to tap into the Tier II and Tier III cities. However, there is no official confirmation on this from Reliance Jio.
It will be interesting to see how much Jio charges for this service. Among the current providers, Hotstar charges Rs 199 for a monthly subscription, while Netflix subscription starts at Rs 500 in India. Amazon Prime Video which is cheapest among all the available options and it is available at an annual cost of Rs 999.
A large number of Indian smartphones currently stream video content on Jio apps and would not have subscribed to Hotstar, Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
A large number of Indian smartphones currently stream video content on Jio apps and would not have subscribed to Hotstar, Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
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