Warner Bros. And HBO Content Will Be Back In India On JioCinema

The content of Warner Bros. and HBO will soon be available on JioCinema. You may watch shows like Succession, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter in India again.

The broadcast subsidiary of India’s Reliance has reached an agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. for its streaming platform JioCinema, marking a significant drive to bring popular Hollywood content to the platform, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

According to sources, the agreement between Reliance’s Viacom18 and Warner Bros. would make Warner Bros. and HBO content available on Reliance’s JioCinema app, such as popular shows such as Succession, Game of Thrones, and the upcoming Harry Potter series. The sources did not reveal the financial details of the transaction.

The original source said that the collaboration will be exclusive and that JioCinema will host the majority of Warner’s top-tier programming. 

According to one source, Warner cannot offer the majority of its popular titles to other Indian competitors, including Amazon Prime Video and Disney Hotstar.

“It’s a comprehensive exclusive agreement that will make JioCinema the home of Warner and HBO in India,” said the individual.

Warner did not respond immediately, and Viacom18 also had no immediate comment.

The content agreement could add thousands of hours of streaming content to JioCinema, which has gained popularity for its free streaming of the IPL cricket tournament this season.

Disney previously held the IPL digital streaming rights from 2023 to 2027, which were acquired by Viacom18 for approximately $2.9 billion.

Several of HBO’s most popular programs, including Succession, broadcast on the Disney Hotstar platform in India until March 31 of this year, as part of an agreement between the two companies that expired on that date.

Bodhi Tree, a joint venture between James Murdoch and Uday Shankar, a former Star India executive, recently invested $528 million in Viacom18.

According to the first source, Warner previously had various agreements with Indian streaming titans, but the Viacom-Warner deal will consolidate that library, which will include content from HBO, Max, and Warner, among others.

JioCinema seeks to compete with competitors such as Netflix and Amazon in an industry where such platforms are growing in popularity due to low data costs.

However, JioCinema is a minor participant. According to Media Partners Asia, Netflix outperforms competitors in the subscription video-on-demand market, with a 39% revenue share in 2021 compared to Hotstar’s 23%.

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