Reliance Jio is reportedly planning to enter the streaming space in India with exclusive video content for subscribers of its platform. The fairly new telecom entrant is in talks with 18-20 production houses to create various video offerings such as – movies, TV shows, reality TV series, travel specials, short videos on food and education, short films and more, as reported by Factor Daily (FD). Jio's move to create original streaming content will be a first from any telecom company in India.
Sources told the publication that Jio has already partnered with Roy Kapur Films, Director Vikram Bhatt, Arre and AltBalaji to produce original content for its streaming platform. The deal will ensure that video content from these sources is exclusively available on Reliance Jio, apart from the partners’ own platforms.
Further, Reliance Jio’s original video content is expected to span across a range of genres namely – action, adventure, comedy, fantasy, family, documentary and crime.
“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 told FD.
With exclusive and differentiated streaming content, Reliance Jio can prove to be a worthy adversary for the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and other online streaming services that are popular amongst Indian users.
Not only is video consumption on an all time high in India, Reliance Jio is the world’s most rapidly growing telco. The Mukesh Ambani-led company has added over 130 million subscribers since launch and has even led to a significant jump in data consumption in the country.
With the partnerships Jio has forged, it will be able to produce locally relevant content. That, combined with Jio’s growing subscriber base, will give tough competition to other streaming players in the country. One can also expect Jio to make this content available at extremely low prices, or even free, bundled with its other telecom offerings.