HBO content like Succession, Game of Thrones soon on JioCinema after tie-up with Warner Brothers

The broadcast venture of India's Reliance has struck a deal with Warner Bros Discovery Inc. for its streaming platform JioCinema, a big push into bringing popular Hollywood content on the platform.

The deal between Reliance's Viacom18 would see Warner Bros as well as its HBO content becoming available on Reliance's JioCinema app, including popular shows such as Succession, Game of Thrones and the upcoming Harry Potter series.

The partnership is exclusive and will see most of Warner's marquee content on the JioCinema platform. Warner cannot offer most of its popular titles to other Indian rivals including Amazon Prime Video and Disney Hotstar, said one of the sources.

"The deal includes current and future seasons of HBO's globally acclaimed series such as House of The Dragon, The Last of Us, Succession and The White Lotus, and returning seasons of True Detective: Night Country, Euphoria, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty and Perry Mason. Also featured as part of the agreement are highly anticipated HBO Original series including The Idol, White House Plumbers, The Sympathizer and The Regime. In addition, HBO's esteemed series and documentaries, including Game of Thrones, Sex & The City, Big Little Lies, Chernobyl and Veep, will be available for users," according to a joint statement from both companies.

The statement also said that all HBO Original, Max Original and Warner Bros. Television series are set to premiere on JioCinema on the same day as the US.

The content deal could bring in thousands of hours of streaming content onto JioCinema, which has become popular for streaming the IPL cricket tournament on the platform for free in the ongoing season.

Viacom18 won the IPL digital streaming rights from 2023 to 2027 for around $2.9 billion, rights which Disney previously held.

Several of HBO's top-rated shows, including Succession, aired in India on the Disney Hotstar platform until March 31 this year, as part of a deal between the two companies that ended on that date.

Viacom18 recently received an investment of $528 million from Bodhi Tree, a joint venture between James Murdoch and a former Star India executive, Uday Shankar.

Warner so far had various arrangements with Indian streaming giants, but the Viacom-Warner deal will see a consolidation of that library and will include HBO, Max and Warner content, among others.

JioCinema is seeking to compete with rivals including Netflix and Amazon in a market where such platforms are becoming increasingly popular, thanks to cheap data prices.

But JioCinema is a small player. Netflix outperforms rivals in the subscription video-on-demand market, commanding a 39 percent share by revenue in 2021 compared to nearest rival Hotstar's 23 percent, according to Media Partners Asia.