Warner Bros. Discovery and Viacom18 unveiled a multi-year agreement with Jio Cinema with the latest streaming home on HBO Max Original and Warner Bros. In this, the WBD content had been moved to the Disney-owned Star TV platform. It seems that the deal with Star expired at the end of March. In this, the WBD sources have confirmed except for a handful of shows licensed to third parties. HBO content has been absent from Indian airwaves.
You will get a new deal along with another major victory for Mukesh Ambani. He is India’s one of the richest and most politically influential businessmen. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is just behind Viacom18 and the JioCinema streaming platform along with India’s dominant cellular phone and broadband internet providers.
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The television series is going to premiere on JioCinema on the same day as the U.S. The deal contains current and future seasons of popular HBO show “House of The Dragon,” “The Last of Us,” “Succession” and “The White Lotus,” and comes with the seasons of “True Detective: Night Country,” “Euphoria,” “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” and “Perry Mason.”
As a part of the agreement of HBO original series containing “The Idol,” “White House Plumbers,” “The Sympathizer” and “The Regime” and library titles “Game of Thrones,” “Sex & The City,” “Big Little Lies,” “Chernobyl” and “Veep.”
The brand new Max Original series containing “And Just Like That…,” “Peacemaker” and “The Flight Attendant,” premieres like “Dune: The Sisterhood,” “The Batman” spinoff “The Penguin” and “Duster,” from J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan, as well Warner Bros. Television series like “East New York” and “Gotham Knights” are also part of the deal.
Clement Schwebig, president, of India, Southeast Asia, and Korea, Warner Bros. Discovery, said: “Warner Bros. Discovery’s brands are incredibly popular across India and we are pleased to partner with Viacom18 to bring our premium HBO, Max Original, and Warner Bros. content to local fans. This new agreement demonstrates our commitment to South Asia as we seek to entertain audiences across more platforms, and further strengthens the scale of our regional business as a whole.”
Farzad Palia, the head of SVOD and international business, Viacom18, included “JioCinema has become the biggest platform for live sports. We are now on a mission to build the most magnetic destination for entertainment for all Indians. The strategic partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery is a big milestone in our journey to offer the best Hollywood content to our elite consumers. We believe that Warner Bros. Discovery sets the global standards for premium content and this partnership allows us to create the best and the most comprehensive destination for our users.” cricket.
Walt Disney has held the TV and digital rights to IPL for the past five seasons, won only the broadcast TV rights, but agreed to pay $3.01 billion for them.
In this both the IPL and Warner content wins increase RIL’s leverage to change the Indian broadcasting landscape, to tip the balance even further in favor of streaming, and to undermine Disney’s position in the world’s most populous nation.
JioCinema, which has aggregated content from the suppliers containing AltBalaji, Eros Now, Paramount, Shemaroo Entertainment, and Viacom18, currently operates as an ad-supported operation. It is tipped to start charging subscription fees later this year.
The IPL tournament is now underway with JioCinema playing it free of charge, having an ad-supported fashion, while Star offers the same games just behind a paywall.
JioCinema has also begun its own movie and TV production efforts. Primarily, this month it unveiled a slate of 100 pieces of content in Hindi and a long range of regional languages.
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