After HBO, JioCinema Onboards NBCUniversal To Enhance Premium Offerings

Nearly a month after striking a content partnership deal with HBO, JioCinema has entered a multi-year partnership with NBCUniversal (NBCU) to bring the latter’s films and TV shows to India.

With this partnership, NBCUniversal’s content, including Peacock Original Series and new movies, will be available on JioCinema Premium.

Earlier this month, the Reliance-backed OTT platform rolled out a premium subscription plan, starting at INR 999 per year, for its users to access international content, including that of HBO and Warner Bros.

The partnership with NBCU seems to be a step by JioCinema to strengthen its premium content offering to gain customers in the crowded OTT market of India.

In a statement, the OTT platform said that NBCU’s programming will be live on a Peacock branded hub starting next month on JioCinema. Viewers will have access to first-run series like Young Rock, The Lazarus Project, The Lovers, as well as Peacock originals including Bel-Air, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin, The Calling, among others.

“This partnership leverages JioCinema’s reach and expertise to introduce Indian audiences to the Peacock brand and NBCU’s portfolio, while JioCinema cements its position as the largest OTT service in the market, now reinforced by an unprecedented volume of best-in-class films and series from NBCU,” JioCinema parent Viacom18 said in a statement.

It must be noted that Viacom18 entered into an exclusive content partnership with Warner Bros last month to host the content of HBO, Max Original and Warner Bros. on JioCinema.

From sports to premium and original content, JioCinema is pushing aggressively to grab a big share in India’s OTT market. Recently, it also revealed plans to release as many as 100 movies and shows, produced at a cost of INR 2,000 Cr, over the next 18-24 months.

Its decision to stream the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) for free has already helped JioCinema woo a large number of customers. The platform claimed it saw 5 Cr new app downloads during the opening weekend of the cricket tournament and clocked over 147 Cr video views during the first weekend itself, attracting 10 Cr new viewers.

Getting the digital rights of the marquee cricket tournament has helped JioCinema challenge the undisputed leadership of Disney+Hotstar in the Indian OTT market. With it adding new content for its premium plan, the platform is also likely to create problems for its other rivals like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Zee5 and SonyLIV.

According to a report by RBSA Advisors, India’s video OTT market is expected to reach a size of $12.5 Bn by 2030 from about $1.5 Bn in 2021 due to increasing internet and smartphone penetration.