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Disney+ Hotstar and Viacom18 are adopting a new strategy by offering popular cricket tournaments, such as the Asia Cup and the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, for free to mobile users in India. However, experts in the media and entertainment industry are concerned about the long-term consequences of removing the paywall on premium sports content. They believe that this move may negatively impact the subscription market for sports and reduce the value of broadcasting rights in the future. In response to these concerns, Disney Star, the local unit of Walt Disney Co, stated that the decision to lift the paywall for mobile viewers is aimed at democratizing the game of cricket and making it accessible to a wider audience in India. They believe that this move will contribute to the growth of the overall ecosystem. It’s important to note that only the two sporting events mentioned will be available for free, while other premium content, including English language content from Marvel, Pixar, LucasFilms, Disney Animation, and Indian originals, will remain behind the paywall. The free access to the tournaments is limited to mobile users, while connected TV users will still need to pay. According to a FICCI EY report, India has 540 million mobile internet users. As of May, Disney+ Hotstar had the largest paid subscriber base in the country, with 52.9 million subscribers. However, the loss of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and non-renewal of HBO Originals may significantly impact the subscriber base, which has already seen a decline of 8.4 million in the past six months.

According to a statement by Viacom18, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 final match between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Gujarat Titans broke records by becoming the most-watched digital event globally on JioCinema, with 12 Crore unique viewers. Viacom18 revealed that the final match achieved a peak concurrency of 3.21 Crore viewers, setting a new world record. Throughout the 16th edition, JioCinema garnered over 1700 crore video views. Impressively, the platform saw a record-breaking 2.5 Crore downloads in a single day, making it the most installed app. On average, viewers spent over 60 minutes per match on the platform. Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj stated, “Record-breaking scale on JioCinema combined with targeting, the flexibility of cost, measurement, interactivity, reach, and integration offered significant advantages to its sponsors and advertisers.” The remarkable engagement and participation on the digital platform indicate a turning point in the industry, shaping the future of viewership and advertising deployment. JioCinema attracted 26 sponsors and over 800 advertisers for the IPL, with more than 40 advertisers on Connected TV. Among the sponsors were Dream11, JioMart, PhonePe, Tiago EV, Jio, Appy Fizz, ET Money, Castrol, TVS, Oreo, Bingo, Sting, AJIO, Haier, RuPay, Louis Philippe Jeans, Amazon, Rapido, Ultra Tech Cement, Puma, Kamla Pasand, Kingfisher Power Soda, Jindal Panther TMT Rebar, Saudi Tourism, Spotify, and AMFI. To enhance customer engagement, JioCinema offered 17 simultaneous feeds in 12 languages, including 4K resolution, multi-camera views, and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) experiences, providing viewers with a stadium-like atmosphere and unprecedented autonomy

JioCinema, a streaming platform owned by Viacom18, and NBCUniversal (NBCU) on Monday jointly announced a multi-year agreement to distribute a number of NBCU TV series and films in India. A month ago, JioCinema announced that starting in May, it would be the new home for HBO and Warner Bros. content in the nation. According to the agreement, users will be able to watch shows from NBCU’s renowned content library, which is supported by companies and production bodies like Universal Television, Universal International Studios, Sky Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Universal Pictures, and Focus Features. Starting in June, JioCinema’s newly announced “JioCinema Premium” SVOD (subscription video on demand) tier will feature NBCU programmes through a Peacock-branded hub. Through this service, Indian subscribers will have access to Peacock Originals like “The Calling,” an investigative drama series from Emmy winner David E. Kelley, directed and executive produced by Oscar winner Barry Levinson, and “Bel-Air,” a dramatic remake of the Will Smith-starring comedy series from the 1990s. Future releases of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which features Chris Pratt as Mario, “The Despicable Me/Minions” and “Fast” franchise films, including the recently released “Fast X,” as well as the eagerly anticipated epic thriller “Oppenheimer,” which Christopher Nolan will shoot in IMAX, will also be available on the service. NBCU offers unscripted series like “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Vanderpump Rules” for viewers of reality television to stream. The DreamWorks Animation slate will include the Oscar-nominated “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” and the sci-fi horror movie “M3GAN” from James Wan and Blumhouse. NBCU’s extensive library of critically acclaimed and popular series, including “Downton Abbey,” “Suits,” “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “The Mindy Project,” are also included in this agreement.

Viacom18 has been named the exclusive media partner for Season 4 of Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT), which has been promoted by Niraj Bajaj and Vita Dani under the aegis of the Table Tennis Federation of India. The competition, which starts on July 13 and ends on July 30, will be televised on Sports18 and live streamed on JioCinema as a result of the arrangement. The UTT expands Viacom18 Sports’ diverse lineup of top sporting events, which already includes the TATA IPL, TATA WPL, Diamond League, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, MotoGP, NBA, LaLiga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and some BWF events. “The partnership with Viacom18 signifies a notable milestone for the growth of UTT and will offer the supporters unprecedented access to high-quality action from the upcoming season. We will work together to amplify the league’s prominence and thrill, to highlight the exceptional abilities of our players,” said co-promoter Niraj Bajaj. With their outstanding results in prior editions, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manav Thakkar, Sutirtha Mukherjee, and Manika Batra have helped to establish themselves as talents in UTT. Numerous other world-famous athletes have also taken part, including the current European champion from Austria, Sofia Polcanova (World No. 12), the bronze medalist from the Tokyo Olympics, Cheng I-Ching (World No. 9), the two-time World Championship medalist from Hong Kong, Wong Chun Ting, and World No. 11 Doo Hoi Kem.

KT Rama Rao, the Telangana minister of industries and information technology, met with Alexandra Carter, senior vice president of finance at Warner Bros. Discovery, on May 16, 2023 as part of his trip to the US. The conversations stressed a joint goal of both parties to promote development and innovation in the media and entertainment sector. An impressive portfolio of well-known brands is housed by Warner Bros. Discovery, a well-known international media and entertainment giant, including HBO, HBO Max, CNN, TLC, Discovery, Discovery Plus, WB, Eurosport, Animal Planet, Cinemax, Pogo, HGTV, Cartoon Network, and Quest. It is clear from Warner Bros. Discovery’s plan to open an office there that the company wants to take advantage of the enormous prospects the Indian market offers. Warner Bros. Discovery’s operations in India will have a strategic hub at the Information Development Centre (IDC) in Hyderabad. The IDC intends to hire 1,200 people in its first year, with plans to increase that number as the company grows. This decision reflects the company’s trust in Hyderabad as a booming centre for the media and entertainment industry as well as its commitment to building a footprint in India. The entry of Warner Bros. Discovery into Hyderabad is anticipated to result in a number of exciting opportunities and advantages. The opening of their office will help the local economy grow and thrive while also opening up employment opportunities for skilled professionals.

Leading movie theatre operator PVR INOX aims to close over 50 screens that are losing money and are depreciating quickly. According to PVR INOX’s investor update for the fourth quarter and financial year ending March 31, 2023, “The company plans to shut down approximately 50 cinema screens over the next 6 months.” These properties are either loss-making or located in malls that are nearing the end of their usefulness and have limited potential for future growth. “The company has taken an accelerated charge of the depreciation in its books and written off the WDV of assets,” it stated. After the merger of two well-known movie theatre brands, PVR Ltd and INOX Leisure, PVR-INOX Ltd was formed. Beginning on February 6, 2023, the merger took effect. By the conclusion of FY23, the combined company would be running 361 theatres with 1,689 screens over 115 cities in India and Sri Lanka. “There will be Rs 100 million of EBITDA impact (savings) by closing down of 50 screens,” said Karan Taurani, SVP of Elara Capital. He said that the majority of these screens are in Tier I and II markets. In addition to PVR, INOX plans to open 150–175 screens in FY24 as part of its ongoing expansion. “Of these, 9 screens have been opened till date, 15 screens are awaiting license for commercial opening and 152 screens are currently under various stages of fit out,” the statement read. All upcoming handovers of new sites for fit-outs have been rescheduled till the time that business has completely recovered. “The company has a robust pipeline of screens signed up for development over the next 5 years,” it added. PVR INOX announced on Monday that its consolidated net loss for the fourth quarter that ended on March 31, 2023, was Rs 333.99 crore and its operating revenue was Rs 1,143.17 crore. As SPH (Spend per Head)/ATP (Average Ticket Price) are 16%/30% higher than pre-COVID level, Taurani stated, “We believe increased footfall growth is the only key driver of revenue growth in FY24.” Given the enormous possibilities, management is not worried about losing some of the screens in the pipeline.  

Indian streaming service, Hotstar, owned by Disney, experienced a loss of 4.6 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2023, marking the second consecutive quarter of subscriber decline. This brings the total loss of subscribers to 8.4 million since October of 2022. Hotstar’s revenue also decreased, with the average revenue per subscriber falling from 74 cents to 59 cents in the quarter. The loss of subscribers is largely attributed to Hotstar’s loss of the rights to live stream the Indian Premier League cricket tournament to Viacom18’s JioCinema platform. Viacom18 is now streaming the tournament for free in India. Hotstar also terminated some distribution partnerships with telecom firms and its licensing agreement with HBO. The platform has around 53 million subscribers but is predicted to experience further subscriber loss, potentially reaching an additional 7 million by the end of the year. “Lower impressions were attributable to decreases in average viewership at our sports and non-sports channels. The decrease at our sports channels was primarily due to cricket programming, which reflected airing fewer Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in the current quarter compared to the prior-year quarter as the 2023 IPL season started approximately one week later than the 2022 season,” Disney said in its earnings report Wednesday.

MovieVerse Studios, a new film content studio from the Anand Mahindra and Aditya Pittie-backed IN10 Media Network, will be headed by Vivek Krishnani, who joined the company from Sony Pictures Entertainment India in June 2022. According to Krishnani, the film studio will create Hindi- and regional-language-specific content to appeal to both streaming and theatregoers. Six films in Hindi and Tamil have been announced by the studio. “As part of our immediate development slate, we have four Hindi films and two Tamil films. As we expand our footprint in other regional languages, this number will continue to grow,” he said. The studio will focus on producing small, medium and big-budget films. “Once the content has been developed, we will then partner with studios/OTT platforms to co-invest in a wide range of small and big-budget films ranging from Rs 15 crore to Rs 100 crore plus,” Krishnani stated. The studio has not yet finalized its release schedule, he added. We are now in the lifecycle of our development but aim to share them with audiences in the first quarter of 2024. When compared to the prior fiscal year, IN10 Media’s net loss increased 47% to Rs 113 crore. IN10 Media owns and runs TV channels like EPIC, ShowBox, Filamchi, Gubbare, and Ishara. Tofler disclosed financial information for the company, showing that operating revenue had increased by almost four times to Rs 207 crore and operating expenses by almost 2.5 times to Rs 321 crore. MovieVerse Studios intends to create content in a variety of categories, including drama, comedy, action, and thriller. In collaboration with Bake My Cake Films, the studio is producing an action survival rescue drama based on a true story, which will be directed by Sandeep Leyzell and Shobhna Yadav. Umang Vyas will helm the production. The lineup also includes a thriller that will be directed by Viki Rajani and Pavan Kripalani of Faith Films. Additionally, DING Entertainment and the studio have planned a supernatural drama. The film schedule also includes a Tanuj Garg and Atul Kasbekar action thriller drama that was coproduced by Ellipsis Entertainment. It will distribute two Tamil films in collaboration with TG Thyagarajan of Sathya Jyothi Films, the largest film production and distribution firm in southern India. Tamil filmmaker Binu Subramanyam is directing both films. Script Stories Media owns a 99.99% stake in the company, which also owns EPIC ON and DocuBay streaming platforms in addition to Juggernaut Productions.

After 25 years of revolutionising at-home TV viewing, Netflix Inc. is ending its original business of delivering DVDs. According to a statement released on Tuesday, the company will ship its last discs on September 29. Co-Chief Executive Officer Ted Sarandos said, “Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members, but as the business continues to shrink that’s going to become increasingly difficult.” Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, the company’s co-founders, came up with the idea, and for the tens of millions of users who received the red envelopes with the Discs in the mail, it became a ritual. The DVD era saw the creation of some of the company’s early original productions. In 2007, the company debuted its streaming operation, resulting in the downfall of Blockbuster Entertainment, the largest DVD rental chain. The iconic horror-comedy Beetlejuice was the first DVD that Netflix ever distributed. More than 5.2 billion Disks have been sent out since then. The Sandra Bullock sports drama The Blind Side was its most well-known title.

On Monday in New Delhi, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) published a consultation paper (CP) on concerns pertaining to Low Power Small Range FM Radio Broadcasting. In accordance with section 11(1)(a)(i) of the TRAI Act, 1997, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) invited recommendations from the Authority on the necessity and timing of the introduction of a new service provider for drive-in theatre applications in its reference dated March 7, 2022. For sound broadcasting services that are designed for specific locations and reception regions, low-power short-range FM radio broadcasting is an efficient method. Drive-in theatres, hospital radio services, amusement parks, working places, closed communities like residential complexes, small habitations, local events like air shows and sporting events, etc. are a few examples of these services. In light of this, a consultation paper has been created to solicit feedback and opinions from stakeholders on a range of low-power FM radio broadcasting-related issues. Stakeholders are encouraged to submit written comments on the consultation paper by May 15, 2023. By May 29, 2023, counter comments, if any, may be submitted. According to a press release from TRAI, comments and counter-comments may be sent, ideally in electronic form, to the email addresses advbcs-2@trai.gov.in and jtadvbcs-1@trai.gov.in. The consultation paper’s complete text is accessible on the TRAI website at www.trai.gov.in.