From Succession to Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, JioCinema will be the new home of HBO in India starting May

• After scooping up the digital streaming rights of IPL, Reliance’s JioCinema will get Succession, The White Lotus and other HBO shows and movies starting May.
  
• Reliance’s media arm Viacom18 has entered into a multi-year agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, further strengthening its content portfolio.
  
• In March this year, Disney+ Hotstar lost access to all HBO content after streaming it since 2015 as parent Disney CEO Bob Iger went on a cost-cutting spree.
  

After scooping up the digital streaming rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Reliance’s JioCinema will host Succession, The White Lotus and other HBO shows and movies starting May. Reliance’s media arm Viacom18 has entered into a multi-year agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, further strengthening its content portfolio.

Starting May, JioCinema users will be able to stream HBO, Max Original and Warner Bros. content on the app. In addition to this, JioCinema users will also get access to extremely popular movies and shows like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and animation series like Tom & Jerry Kids and Dexter’s Laboratory, among others.

Making the announcement, Ferzad Palia, head - SVOD & International Business, Viacom18, said, “We are now on a mission to build the most magnetic destination for entertainment for all Indians.”

The highly popular Dune series, which is getting its second season with Dune: The Sisterhood will also be available on JioCinema when it premieres. Other popular titles like Game of Thrones, Sex & The City, Chernobyl, Big Little Lies and more will also be available, the company said in a statement.

JioCinema could soon launch premium subscription plans

With JioCinema soon to be the home of HBO and Warner Bros. content in India, Reliance’s bid to start charging viewers a subscription fee gets a leg up given the popularity of both sports and HBO content in India.

Earlier this week, a test website of JioCinema revealed the company’s premium plans, which start from as low as ₹2 per day, with the top tier platinum plan costing ₹599 per year.

This is cheaper than what other top players like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar are charging – while Netflix charges up to ₹7,788 per year for its most premium plan, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar charge ₹1,499 per year.

That said, JioCinema’s premium plans are not yet live on the platform and it’s not known when or if they will be launched. All eyes will be on the company for more details.

Second major setback for Disney+ Hotstar

Viacom18’s rival Disney+ Hotstar earlier lost the digital streaming rights of IPL in the 2023-27 cycle, and subsequently in March this year, its 8-year partnership with HBO also came to an end as the two companies could not agree on a price amidst Disney’s global cost-cutting spree.

The impact of losing IPL rights was immediately visible in Disney+ Hotstar’s subscriber base. The platform lost 3.8 million subscribers in the December quarter, bringing down its total paying customers to 57.5 million.

According to Elara Capital’s senior vice president Karan Taurani, the loss of IPL and HBO content could lead to a quarter of Disney+ Hotstar subscribers fleeing the service.

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