JioCinema has been the fastest-growing OTT platform in India. While the service originally started its operations in 2016, JioCinema was mainly used by Jio’s cellular subscribers. The platform recently started to emerge as an independent streaming service competing with Hotstar, when it acquired the streaming rights for the FIFA World Cup last year.
JioCinema also streamed the IPL 2023 earlier this year, announcing itself as a major player in the sports streaming segment in India. JioCinema is now expanding in the kids entertainment sector as it has just acquired the exclusive streaming rights for Pokemon in India.
JioCinema Focuses on Kids Entertainment, Signs Pokemon
Reuters has reported that Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema has bagged the rights to exclusively stream the Pokemon Series in India. This will include all the existing 1000 episodes from the series, along with 20 movies. Pokemon will be available in three languages on the JioCinema platform.
The report says that JioCinema is trying to expand in the kids entertainment segment, offering competition to the Walt Disney Group and its subsidiary Hotstar in India. Disney is one of the largest players in the kids segment in the country.
Over the last few weeks, JioCinema was said to be in talks with the Disney Group to acquire Hotstar. However, the deal was put on hold as both parties were valuing the business differently where JioCinema was ready to offer $7 billion, whereas Disney was valuing Hostar at over $10 billion.
Eventually, the Disney Group decided to back out from the deal, as confirmed by Disney CEO Bob Iger. But the deal made one thing sure, that the Reliance Group is keen on expanding into the multi-billion dollar streaming market of India.
The current deal between JioCinema and Pokemon has not been disclosed by either party yet. The financials behind the deal too have not been revealed. The official announcement is expected to happen soon.
Pokemon Has Been a Global Hit
The Pokemon Series has been one of the most popular cartoon series not just in India, but all over the world. The Pokemon franchise is valued at over $92 billion, which reflects its global popularity. While the numbers are combined from Pokemon’s offline businesses that include toys, cars, and other elements, anime has played a major role in the popularity of Pokemon.
If JioCinema gets the exclusive streaming rights for Pokemon in India, it will attract a lot of young viewers towards the platform given the vast library of episodes Pokemon has. As of now, some content from the Pokemon Series is already available for free on the JioCinema platform.
The newly signed deal will add over 3000 hours of Pokemon content on JioCinema. Hence, it is highly possible that JioCinema could pu this content behind a paywall of its Premium subscription. For reference, the JioCinema Premium subscription is priced at Rs 999 for 12 months.
