Reliance Jio to create original video content: Competition for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video?

Reliance Jio has basically stirred the Indian telecom space and now it seems that the telco is gearing up to venture into entertainment space. According to reports, Reliance Jio is said to be in conversations with almost 20 production houses to create exclusive video content across multiple formats on its platform.

Having said that, it looks like Reliance Jio is now planning to take on Amazon India and Netflix with its own original video content. FactorDaily reports that Jio is examining content across formats like movies, short films, reality series, comedy and short videos spanning genres like comedy, reality shows, food shows, travel and even education.

"There is so much of video content out there for streaming... but with original and exclusive content the viewer will always come back to one platform," a source close to the company has told the publication.

The report notes that Reliance Jio has already joined hands with director-producer Vikram Bhatt and Roy Kapur Films. The company has signed contracts with Arre, AltBalaji, and Viacom to offer exclusive content on Jio.

Vikram Malhotra, CEO, and founder of Abundantia Entertainment has also confirmed that his company is in conversation with Jio and is considering a few different content formats. Another source has told the publication that his firm is in talks to bring out multi-format comedy content with Jio. They are further banking on Jio to provide the 4G network needed to stream the content.

Additionally, it seems Jio is also focusing on original content in regional languages as a big driver of consumption. Currently, the company offers content in 10 different languages. Thus Jio has plans to expand this feature to its originals and exclusives as well notes the publication.

In any case, it will be interesting to see how this will pan out for the company and what kind of contents it will offer to the consumers.

Reliance Jio has shown tremendous growth by adding over millions of subscribers since its launch. The company not only provide 4G service but also offers free bundled subscriptions to apps like JioTV, JioCinema and JioMusic. And a large part of users also stream video content on Jio apps. Having original content could attract users of Hotstar, Netflix or Amazon Prime Video to its platform.