Reliance Jio has slashed the price of its JioCinema premium plan to as low as Re 1 per day. Starting April 25, the JioCinema premium plan will start at just Rs 29 per month, marking a “significant” decrease from the previous Rs 99 per month or Rs 999 a year subscription fee (for streaming on up to four devices, ads included).
Reliance coming to eat Netflix, Amazon’s lunch
The revamped subscription now provides “ad-free” access to online and offline viewing of Hollywood movies, TV series, and children’s programming in 4K quality across any device, in five different languages. Jio is undercutting rivals including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video with its new pricing.
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Moreover, JioCinema is also getting a “family plan” priced at Rs 89 per month, offering all the premium benefits simultaneously on up to four screens. Existing premium subscribers of JioCinema will be automatically moved to the family plan at no extra cost, Jio has announced.
While sports content, including the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, remains freely accessible as part of the platform’s ad-supported model, premium members gain exclusive access to a vast array of global series and movie premieres. Through strategic partnerships with major studios like Peacock, HBO, Paramount, and Warner Bros Discovery, JioCinema has access to high-profile titles such as “Game Of Thrones”, “House Of The Dragon”, Oppenheimer”, “Barbie”, “Succession” and “The Last of Us.” All of this content will also be available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and Marathi to JioCinema premium users.
Premium TV
Late last year, Jio had launched “JioTV Premium” prepaid plans bundling high-speed data and up to 14 OTT apps under one banner. JioTV Premium plans start at Rs 398 and are available in monthly, quarterly, and annual trims. For Rs 398 a month (28 days validity), Jio’s JioTV Premium gets you 2GB of daily data (no capping post consumption, but speed will be reduced), unlimited voice calling and SMS, in addition to free subscription of 12 “leading” OTT apps. Annual plan subscribers are eligible for “priority” customer care, including one-click call centre support.
Opting for one of these plans lets users watch content from multiple platforms without buying them separately or creating different logins for each app individually except for Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar where access is only available through their respective apps. Jio also claims to offer easy content discovery through its “advanced recommendation engine” inside the JioTV app.
Reliance’s media unit Viacom18 has a strong hold over India’s $28-billion media and entertainment market. Some of its new business moves are surely to heat up the country’s burgeoning streaming space, giving “big tech” players a run for money.
