JioCinema may disrupt SVOD market with low pricing plan

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

JioCinema is set to disrupt India's subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market with one of the industry's lowest pricing plans for premium content. Beginning April 25, JioCinema Premium will offer Indian and Hollywood entertainment content at an introductory tariff of ₹29/month for a single device and ₹89/month for up to four devices, the company said. This comes close on heels of success of its free strategy in the advertising VOD space.
Live sports and catch-up broadcast content will continue to be available for free, the company said, adding that JioCinema, like other broadcast-owned OTT (over-the-top) platforms, will use a hybrid monetisation strategy.

The new pricing is a significant drop from its ₹999/year and ₹99/month plans, which offered only Hollywood content. Unlike the existing plans, the new plans will be ad-free, the company said.

JioCinema Premium will provide users with web originals, movies and content for children, along with Hollywood content from HBO, NBCUniversal and Paramount Global. Viacom18's linear TV content will also be made available before the broadcast premiere.

The new tariff plan will hot up competition with Disney+ Hotstar, Netflix and Prime Video, which collectively have 50-60 million subscribers. «The new pricing is a sharp reduction for an ad-free experience. They are providing more content over and above the Hollywood content and charging less for this,» said Elara Capital's senior vice-president Karan Taurani.

He said JioCinema Premium will impact the SVOD industry