Asia's richest man and owner of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, is now strengthening his dominance in the entertainment sector. First expanded the network by making a deal with Disney and now with the new strategy, the giant is expected to make considerable strides in the OTT sector.
What is Mukesh Ambani's 1 rupee plan?
Under the new strategy, Reliance's Viacom 18 Media Private has introduced a subscription plan of Rs 29 per month under the Jio Cinema OTT platform. Jio will keep live programming like cricket matches and other sports free on Cinema. That means only Rs 1 will be required every day. The streaming service has also introduced a plan of Rs 89 per month, under which access to up to 4 screens will be given.
Closest competitors likely to be Amazon & Netflix
Following the deal with Disney, Jio Cinema can emerge as a strong platform to compete with Netflix and Amazon. According to Kiran Mani, chief executive officer of Viacom18's digital division, the plan includes online and offline viewing of foreign movies, TV shows and children's programming in five languages in 4K quality on any device. Free screening facilities will be provided along with the ads. Netflix and Amazon do not show advertisements during shows and movies but they are more expensive than Jio subscription plans.
However, many things like movies, shows and sports are still available to watch for free, due to which the number of users has increased more than before. Now in such a situation, offering Hollywood-TV shows in Re 1 plan will attract more users, due to which Jio Cinema can affect India's 1 billion plus streaming market and can affect the business of big market players like Amazon-Netflix.
JioCinema is also betting big on the Indian Premier League cricket tournament and streaming it for free. It can connect more than 1 lakh users. Karan Taurani, senior analyst and vice president at brokerage firm Elara Capital, estimates that the digital streaming business in India will soon be worth $3-3.5 billion, while its international catalog will be worth $0.5-1 billion and the TV business will be worth $5.5 billion.