JioCinema to begin charging for content post IPL

In order to compete with major businesses like Netflix and Disney, JioCinema also intends to increase its selection to more than 100 movies and TV shows.

JioCinema, an ownership of Reliance is planning to start charging consumers for its programming after the conclusion of the Indian Premier League (IPL), although continuing to provide free streaming of the cricket competition.

The platform aims to "keep tariffs simple for viewers," according to Jyoti Deshpande, President of Reliance's media and content business, in an interview with Bloomberg. In order to compete with major businesses like Netflix and Disney, JioCinema also intends to increase its selection to more than 100 movies and TV shows. However, the pricing strategy is still being finalized. The new content will be released before the IPL's conclusion on May 28. Deshpande further stated that viewers can still watch IPL games for free.

While there are various regional OTTs that have strong subscriber base, thanks to their ability to draw in the local film-going community, however India is a price-conscious market that drove Netflix to lower pricing in order to gain traction. JioCinema's expansion is focused on both price and content, according to Deshpande.

JioCinema tweeted that all Airtel, Vi, BSNL, and Jio mobile users will still be able to watch the IPL for free. The matches are being televised on TV and online platforms, respectively by Disney Star and Viacom18, whose JioCinema channel racked up more than 147 crore video views during this IPL season's first weekend. Because JioCinema allows customers to stream the tournament for free, it has grown to be one the biggest OTT platforms in the nation.

With Disney Star broadcasting the IPL matches on more than 20 channels, the Indian Premier League also surpassed television viewing records. With 22 million concurrent viewers, the match between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals smashing all previous records for the platform during the history of IPL. The inaugural match saw peak attendance of 56 million spectators, and the opening 10 matches of the season have garnered almost 62.3 billion minutes of viewing time. Allowing customers to watch the IPL in 4K free of charge turned out to be JioCinema's best innovation.

The digital rights for streaming IPL were sold for Rs 23,758 crore while the TV rights for the Indian subcontinent were sold for Rs 23, 575 crore for 410 matches over a period of 5 years, which reaches to Rs 57.40 crore per match. Disney Star retained the TV rights while Viacom18 bagged the digital rights for the Indian subcontinent for a whopping sum of Rs 20,500 crore which cost up to Rs 50 crore per match.

Reliance Jio also recently launched new prepaid plans to meet the enthusiasm of the Indian audience for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. Jio’s latest plans offer added benefits that make it more convenient for customers to watch the matches.

Jio introduced cricket plans with exclusive access to live IPL matches in 4K resolution. The plans include Rs 219, Rs 399, and Rs 999 prepaid plans. All these plans support Jio’s True 5G data. And, as part of the plan, these three packs allow unlimited calling and 3GB of data per day.