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Tag: Akash Ambani

  • Jio partners USP Studios to strengthen kids content library

    Jio partners USP Studios to strengthen kids content library

    KOLKATA: India’s fastest growing telecom company Reliance Jio has partnered with leading kids content creator USP Studios thus strengthening its platform’s offering for kids in India. Through this partnership with USP Studios, Jio users will now have access to eight exciting edutainment apps including Kids First, Kids TV India, Junior Squad Kid Songs, Top Nursery Rhymes, Kids Channel India, Bob The Train, Little Treehouse Rhymes, and Farmees Nursery Rhymes.

    A specialist in creating engaging content for pre-schoolers, USP Studios has been recognized for making learning fun and screen time a positive and enriching time. USP Studios fun learning apps will be available for Jio users in English and other regional languages for free August 2020 onwards.  

    USP Studios has a strong footprint in India that continues to grow. The content creator has a global subscriber base of over 130 million and commands over 2.5 billion views per month. An industry leader, USP Studios continue to produce original content and unique animated character IPs that pre-school kids can relate and connect with. Jio’s partnership with USP Studios will further amplify the accessibility and availability of USP Studios content for kids across India and in the language of their choice.

    On adding content that caters to pre-schoolers, Jio 's Akash Ambani said, “We are extremely excited on this partnership with USP Studios that has helped us expand our offerings for kids and preschoolers. At Jio, we are focused on expanding our content library to suit the needs of our consumers across all ages. USP Studios is a domain expert and a leader in its category. Through this partnership, we are sure that parents will have a new way to keep their kids engaged and make screen time more meaningful with content that is educative and enriching”

    Speaking on expanding presence in the digital ecosystem, USP Studios founder Uday Singh Phoolka said, “Providing kids with content that is differentiated and resourceful is at the heart of what we do at USP Studios. Over the last six years, we have built an edutainment ecosystem consisting of IPs with interesting and engaging characters and channels that have had a lasting and positive impact on toddlers, kids as well as parents. While we have been reaching out to over 130+ million subscribers, we believe it’s time that we further expand this reach to the next 100 million in India and our partnership with Jio will help us achieve this goal.  Jio has been a true gamechanger in how India has been accessing content. It has not only reduced costs, but has opened up new avenues in terms of how consumers access content. We are extremely excited on this partnership with Jio and are certain that both kids and parents across India will benefit from this association.”

  • Jio unveils Jio TV+, the OTT content aggregator for STB users

    Jio unveils Jio TV+, the OTT content aggregator for STB users

    KOLKATA: Over the last few years, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)’s annual general meetings have always bombarded shareholders, investors, users. While Google’s investment in Jio Platform and 5G solution, Jio has also unveiled a new feature for its set-top box users, JioTV+.

    JioTV+  is a content aggregator that brings over the top (OTT) platforms, TV channels, various apps, and services together to its Jio set-top-box users. While Jio Fiber and Jio Set Top Box was introduced last year, the company has enhanced the Jio set-top box basis on learning from the beta programme.

    “The Jio set-top box was launched with best OTT content across the world. We learnt one of the challenges that users faced was to discover their favourite content from the various applications that we had provided. This has given birth to Jio TV+ where we have aggregated all the content from 12 leading global OTT players,” Akash Ambani stated at RIL's 43rd AGM. It will offer easy access to content from major streaming services like including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Voot, SonyLIV, ZEE5. 

    Jio TV Plus includes integrated voice search which works on genres, favourite actors, directors, producers and mood. 

    "We realised all of these 12 apps needed different login ids. To make it simple, we have introduced a single click to play any content without a separate login. Moreover, it requires a user to login a single time instead of logging in on different apps separately," he said 

    It also offers a majority of Live TV channels along with a host interactive features for users to engage in. The features are also available on various genres like GEC, news channels and music contests. “We believe that interactivity on the TV or two-way communication is the future of consumption," Akash Ambani added.

  • Airtel, Jio turn to AI to improve customer service

    Airtel, Jio turn to AI to improve customer service

    MUMBAI: Every industry and player is adapting to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in today’s time and the Indian telecom industry isn’t far behind. In order to offer better customer service and experience, telcos like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are turning to AI.

    Bharti Airtel has teamed up with technology company Google to remove the complexities from its customer service experience. It has integrated AI-powered Google Assistant which responds to voice commands. This modification is said to cut down costs. Airtel was already using AI and Machine Learning to enhance customer experience through its MyAirtel application and airtel.in

    Reliance Jio introduced the voice command feature on its MyJio application. In a recent report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, it said that voice AI is a focus area for the Mukesh Ambani-led telco, and the AI-based voice command feature is working well for the telco.

    According to an Economic Times report, Jio is also taking steps to develop AI-based products and solutions in-house. Jio's director and Mukesh Ambani's son, Akash Ambani, is building a team of professionals on AI and its multiple use cases for the telecom firm.

    Speaking to ET, Greyhound Research founder, CEO and chief analyst Sanchit Vir Gogia said, “Efforts to automate customer service is already visible through apps. Airtel has already made sizeable efforts on this front and is seeing a good response on its MyAirtel app. It makes a lot of sense to adopt AI technology to automate given the cost of human interaction has increased 20-30 per cent.”

    He added that Indian telcos need to make their subscribers use these features. “Airtel's app for self-service is well received. Jio's user base is different and they may not use such a feature as aggressively,” he said.

  • Star India, Jio sign landmark 5-year cricket deal

    Star India, Jio sign landmark 5-year cricket deal

    MUMBAI: Star India and Reliance Jio unleashed a new era in sports entertainment by announcing a 5-year deal. The partnership will cover international matches in all three formats (T20s, ODI and test) and also the premier domestic competitions of BCCI.

    Jio and Star will make all televised India-cricket matches available to users of JioTV and Hotstar in India. This will be the first time that a streaming platform and a high-speed data network have come together to deliver the best of cricketing content with connectivity to benefit the Indian consumers.

    Star India MD Sanjay Gupta said, “Over the last five years, we have re-invented the sports experience in India across screens, both television and digital. Indian cricket under BCCI is one of the most compelling properties in the world and we are excited to apply the same lens of innovation and re-invention to the property that we have applied to other sports in the last few years. And, with a new partner in Reliance Jio, we will have even more opportunities to raise the bar for cricket fans.”

    Jio director Akash Ambani said, “Jio continues to bring the most exclusive content to its users, this time around through the JioTV app. Cricket is not just played, its worshipped in India. Every Indian must have access to the best sporting events as well as quality and affordable bandwidth to consume the content. With this partnership, we intend to address both these objectives of providing the best sporting content with the best digital infrastructure to the Jio users. Jio promises to and will continue to bring a superlative customer experience in the areas of sports, AR, VR, immersive viewing and more in the coming days.”

    Jio and Star have been instrumental in leading many such disruptive initiatives, where they have put the consumer in the centre of innovation.

  • In major Jio push, RIL to acquire Radisys for $74 mn

    In major Jio push, RIL to acquire Radisys for $74 mn

    MUMBAI: India’s largest private sector company Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has entered into an agreement with Radisys Corporation, US-based open telecom platform solutions provider, to acquire the latter. The deal involves a valuation of roughly $ 74 million or Rs 510 crore.

    According to a PTI report, Radisys, a NASDAQ listed company will be delisted post acquisition. RIL will acquire the US-based company for $1.72 per share in cash. 

    Radisys has nearly 600 employees with an engineering team based out of Bangalore, India, and sales and support offices globally, a press release from the company said.
    RIL hopes this deal will accelerate Jio’s global innovation and technology leadership in the areas of 5G, IoT and open source architecture adoption. Since the launch of its launch in 2016, RIL’s telecom venture Jio has been acquiring customers ata rapid pace.

    “Reliance and Jio have been disrupting legacy business models and establishing new global benchmarks. Radisys’ top-class management and engineering team offer Reliance rapid innovation and solution development expertise globally, which complements our work towards software-centric disaggregated networks and platforms, enhancing the value to customers across consumer and enterprise segments,” Reliance Jio director Akash Ambani said.

    Radisys CEO Brian Bronson said, “The backing and support of India-based global conglomerate Reliance, will accelerate our strategy and the scale required by our customers to further deploy our full suite of products and services. The Radisys team will continue to work independently on driving its future growth, innovation and expansion. The addition of Reliance’s visionary leadership and strong market position will enhance Radisys’ ability to develop and integrate large-scale, disruptive, open-centric end-to-end solutions.”

    The deal is subject to approvals from regulators and Radisys’ shareholders, and is expected to be officially sealed in the fourth quarter of 2018. RIL will finance the transaction through its own internal accruals.

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    Reliance Jio ready to disrupt wired broadband: Matthew Oomen

  • Reliance Industries Limited announces strategic investment in Embibe to from India’s largest Artificial Intelligence (AI) based education platform

    Reliance Industries Limited announces strategic investment in Embibe to from India’s largest Artificial Intelligence (AI) based education platform

    Mumbai : Reliance Industries Limited (“RIL”) today executed definitive agreements to acquire majority shareholding constituting 72.69% (on fully diluted basis) from existing investors of Indiavidual Learning Pvt Ltd (“Embibe”), a leading AI-based education platform leveraging data analytics to deliver personalized learning outcomes to each student.

    Reliance has agreed to invest upto Rupee equivalent of US$180 million into Embibe, (including consideration to be paid for acquiring majority stake from existing investors) over the next three years.

    Embibe will use the capital over the next three years towards deepening its R&D on AI in education, as well as business growth and geographic expansion, catering to students across K-12, higher education, professional skilling, vernacular languages and all curriculum categories across India and internationally. The founder and CEO of Embibe, Aditi Avasthi will continue in her leadership role and will drive the growth of the business.

    Speaking on this strategic transaction, Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio, said “The investment in Embibe underlines Reliance’s commitment to growing the education sector in India and the world and making education accessible to the widest possible group of students by deploying technology. Reliance aims to connect over 1.9 million schools and 58,000 universities across India with technology. We are delighted to announce this partnership with Embibe, and believe that their highly experienced management team will be instrumental in enabling Reliance to realize its vision for the education sector, and strengthening Jio’s leadership position as a digital technology company.”

    Aditi Avasthi, Founder and CEO at Embibe, said “Embibe’s team has built an incredible technology platform that can deliver personalized learning outcomes in a way that is truly scalable across all education markets. With robust AI stacks focused on content intelligence and automation, behavioral recommendations and student intelligence, our products have redefined the way edtech can impact the lives of students and teachers. We are supercharging our platform with the ability to deliver both content and outcomes for every learning goal in every student’s journey, to be the leader in personalizing education for India and the world. We are excited to partner with Jio – bringing unrivalled acceleration to our growth story through data and device access. Most of all, we are delighted to partner with Reliance and share their deep conviction and visionary passion to sow the seeds of a new India with data as the new soil.”

    The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

    Citibank acted as financial advisor, AZB & Partners, Covington & Burling LLP and KPMG acted as legal advisors and Pricewaterhouse Coopers provided tax advisory and diligence services to RIL. Embibe was advised by Arpwood Capital, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Partners and Khaitan & Company as legal advisors and Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu Limited for tax advisory services.