JioCinema, the inexpensive on-demand video streaming service rival to Netflix and Disney’s Hotstar in India, will quickly be the house for “The Office” and different NBCUniversal titles.
The Viacom18 streaming service stated on Monday stated it has signed a “multi-year” partnership with NBCUniversal to convey “thousands of hours” of NBCU motion pictures and TV reveals to India. The partnership follows Viacom18 bagging the streaming rights for HBO and different Warner Bros. titles for the South Asian market.
The partnership just isn’t unique, so Netflix is prone to proceed to supply NBCU titles on its platform in India as effectively. Nonetheless, JioCinema scoring these worldwide catalogs ought to be reason behind concern for world giants.
JioCinema, which has over time poached many high-profile expertise from Hotstar, provides essentially the most inexpensive streaming service among the many mainstream streamers. Compared to a normal Netflix plan, which prices $6 a month, JioCinema Premium prices $12 for a 12 months.
The streaming service, which can also be house to the extremely fashionable IPL cricket match and provides a free and ad-supported tier, will beam the NBC titles in India beginning subsequent month, in a devoted Peacock hub on the streaming service, it stated. NBC titles might be solely out there to paying subscribers, stated Viacom18.
Viacom18, a three way partnership between Reliance and Paramount Global, additionally counts former Star executives Uday Shankar and James Murdoch’s Bodhi Tree amongst its backers. Bodhi Tree lowered its deliberate funding in Viacom18 to $528 million final month, a 70% lower from the preliminary dedication of $1.78 billion. Bodhi Tree plans to extend its stake in Viacom18, TechCrunch earlier reported.
Viacom18 stated its expansive cope with NBCUniversal contains content material suite from Universal Television, UCP, Universal International Studios, Universal Television Alternative Studio, Sky Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Universal Pictures, Focus Features, and Bravo, in accordance with a press release from the Indian entity.
The deal contains fashionable sequence like The Office, Parks and Recreation, Downton Abbey, Suits, and The Mindy Project, in addition to blockbuster franchises corresponding to Jurassic, Bourne, Shrek, The Mummy, and Pitch Perfect. Also, the Fast franchise, that includes the newly launched FastX, together with the anticipated title, Oppenheimer, from filmmaker Christopher Nolan, are additionally set to make their Indian streaming debut on JioCinema sooner or later.