Reliance-owned Jio Cinema is likely to start charging you for its content after the end of the Indian Premier League, even as the official digital streaming partner of the world's richest cricket league continues to offer free streaming of IPL that is breaking several viewership records this year.
Viacom18's JioCinema plans to bulk up on content with more than 100 films and TV series to its platform to take on global biggies such as Netflix and Walt Disney, but this will come at a cost for consumers. In an interview to Bloomberg, Reliance's media and content business President Jyoti Deshpande said the expansion will coincide with JioCinema starting to charge for content, though the exact pricing strategy is still being finalised. The content addition will be rolled out before the end of IPL on May 28. Viewers can still watch the IPL matches for free, she said.
However, JioCinema tweeted that IPL will continue to remain free across all Airtel, Vi, BSNL, & Jio mobile users. The likely strategy to start charging for content comes at a time when the conglomerate-owned platform has attracted millions of viewers banking on the ongoing IPL razzmatazz.JioCinema has claimed that the platform has seen 5.5 billion unique video views in the first week. It also said that the Chennai Super Kings versus Rajasthan Royals match on JioCinema drew a record-breaking 22 million concurrent viewers on April 12, 2023.IPL's record-shattering numbers have been true for the television too, as Disney Star, which is airing the matches on more than 20 channels, said that the first 10 IPL games have clocked 62.3 billion minutes of watch time. It had a peak concurrency of 56 million for the opening match.