No more free streaming; Jio Cinema will roll out new pricing next month
The free days of live streaming the Indian Premier League are going to be over very soon as Mukesh Ambani, who owns JioCinema, is going to roll out new pricing for the content, including the IPL and all other sports events. Hence, JioCinema will work similarly to Disney+HotStar, putting all content behind a paywall. Before the 2023 IPL season ends, JioCinema is going to decide on the new pricing.
After pipping Sony and Disney-Star in bagging IPL Digital Rights, Viacom18 revolutionised the viewing experience, introducing multi-camera angles, 4K live streaming, and regional commentary, all for free. As IPL is tasting success with its "Jio moment," it signals the end to freebies. Before the finals of IPL 2023, JioCinema is going to introduce different plans and prices for all content on the platform, including sporting events, Viacom18’s President, Jyoti Deshpande, confirmed this news in an interview with Bloomberg.
Although free sounds better than paying, subscription fees are going to be very low as JioCinema wants to cut the competition with cheaper prices.
Karan Taurani, SVP at Elara Capital, told BT that "it would be difficult for them to recover even 30 to 40 percent of IPL’s content acquisition cost via the digital route if it is free in the near term, i.e., for the next two years." JioCinema offering IPL for free will also be a big negative for the ARPUs of other OTT platforms in a market where most of them are already available at cheap prices compared to global averages.