ITV

Tag: Jio

  • JioCinema bags exclusive streaming rights of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

    JioCinema bags exclusive streaming rights of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

    Mumbai: In an interesting development Viacom18, the joint venture between Reliance’s TV18 and Paramount Global, has announced plans to move its existing sports properties from the company’s video-on-demand service VOOT to JioCinema.

    According to the company’s announcement, JioCinema shared that it will stream live all the matches of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and will also bring other curated content around it.

    In addition to JioCinema, the global marquee competition will also be available on Sports18 – 1 SD & HD, from 20 November to 18 December to all viewers.

    Viacom18 Sports’ 64-match showcase will be headlined by live streaming in 4K and multiple language feeds, including English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, and Bengali on JioCinema without charging any subscription fees.

    “Viacom18 Sports’ multi-platform presentation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be immersive, personalised and offer viewers exclusive experiences on JioCinema,”  said Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jayaraj.

    He added, “We want consumers to have easy access to world-class production across digital and linear platforms (on Sports 18) to match the event’s stature. Our efforts are towards reshaping the fan experience and building one of the most-loved media platforms in India.”

  • Jio Haptik announces exclusive product launch event ‘Hype’ ahead of festive season

    Jio Haptik announces exclusive product launch event ‘Hype’ ahead of festive season

    Mumbai: As the festive season is just around the corner, a conversational commerce company, Jio Haptik, has announced plans to organise its exclusive product launch event, ‘Hype.’ Jio Haptik, through this much-awaited event, will launch new commerce products and features for the upcoming festive sales.

    The event will be held at Taj Santacruz, Mumbai, on 15 September from 4:00 p.m.

    While dealing with an increase in sales and support requests, WhatsApp has emerged as the ideal medium for brands to achieve their goals. This product launch event is aligned with the increasing importance of proactive customer engagement strategies through WhatsApp. The event will witness top industry leaders discuss various WhatsApp campaign strategies to help brands break sales records, especially during the upcoming Diwali and festive season.

    As part of the launch, the products introduced by Jio Haptik will help brands significantly optimise marketing budgets, achieve phenomenal sales, and enhance customer interactions. The product ‘proactive messaging’ will help customer-facing teams to initiate new conversations with users via WhatsApp notifications. The second product, ‘commerce plus,’ will make shopping through conversations easier through search and FAQs on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.

    The event will be facilitated by leading CX and growth leaders –  Jio Mobility platforms & products manager Satinder Singh, Jio Mart director of product management Archit Shrivastava, Netmeds chief communications officer Bruce Schwack and many more.

    Sharing his views on the event launch, Haptik CEO and co-founder Aakrit Vaish said, “Messaging as a medium is now helping brands accomplish sales via direct customer conversations at scale. As the world’s largest WhatsApp chatbot provider, our exclusive features will help enterprises proactively sell their products to customers, digitise the end-to-end shopping experience, and meet enormous demand during the festive season. Also, our solution shall significantly increase brand discovery through newer channels like ads, SMS, and Instagram to help brands build a true-omnichannel strategy.”

    Commenting on the occasion, Netmeds chief communications officer Bruce Schwack said, “We have been using Haptik for two years now, and from the outset, we have been impressed not only with their technology, but also with their sharp focus on how the technology could help us achieve our business objectives. We’ve already experienced the tremendous advantage Haptik gives us in managing and reducing friction on the CS side, and now the new WhatsApp commerce feature promises to help us convert browsers into customers. Any tool that helps us retain existing customers and on-board new ones gets a big thumbs up from me. So, don’t put your fork down, the best is yet to come!”

  • Reliance Jio adds 2.9 mn wireless subscribers in July: Trai

    Reliance Jio adds 2.9 mn wireless subscribers in July: Trai

    Mumbai: Reliance Jio added 2.9 million wireless subscribers at the end of July, as per subscription data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Bharti Airtel added 0.51 million wireless subscribers during the same period. Vodafone Idea lost 1.54 wireless subscribers in July.

    The total number of wireless subscribers increased from 1,147.39 to 1,148.03 million in July. The number of wireless subscribers in urban areas decreased from 625.49 million to 626.74 million. However, wireless subscriptions in rural areas increased from 521.90 million to 521.29 million.

    As per Trai data, there were 1,013.18 million active wireless subscribers during the month. Reliance Jio had the highest number of active wireless subscribers at 382.17 million, followed by Bharti Airtel at 356.17 million and Vodafone Idea at 216.92 million. BSNL had 52.27 active wireless subscribers.

    As per information received from 694 operators in July, Trai found that total broadband subscribers increased from 800.94 million to 807.42 million. The broadband subscribers comprised 776.81 mobile device users, 29.47 million wired subscribers, and 1.14 million fixed wireless subscribers.

    The top five broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm with 422.23 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 222.12 million subscribers, Vodafone Idea with 122.98 million subscribers, BSNL with 25.25 million subscribers, and Atria Convergence with 2.13 million subscribers.

    The top five wired broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm with 6.27 million subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 4.99 million subscribers, BSNL with 3.85 million subscribers, Atria Convergence with 2.13 million subscribers, and Hathway Cable and Datacom with 1.13 million subscribers.

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm with 415.96 million, Bharti Airtel with 217.13 million, Vodafone Idea with 122.97 million, BSNL with 21.39 million, and Intech Online with 0.22 million.

    The number of wireline subscribers increased from 25.57 million to 25.63 million in July.

    The number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,172.96 million to 1,173.66 million. Urban telephone subscriptions increased from 649.09 million to 650.40 million. However, rural subscriptions decreased from 523.87 million to 523.26 million.

    During July, a total of 10.23 million requests were received for mobile number portability (MNP).

  • Reliance Jio to roll out 5G services in major cities by Diwali

    Reliance Jio to roll out 5G services in major cities by Diwali

    Mumbai: On Monday, at the 45th annual general meeting, Reliance Industries announced that Jio has prepared an ambitious 5G roll-out plan, which is claimed to be the fastest in the world.

    Using immersive and interactive metaverse technology, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani addressed the shareholders at the AGM and made the announcement.
    The chairman’s statement also said that they have made a total investment of two 2 lakh crore rupees.

    He said, “Within the next two months, by Diwali, we will launch Jio 5G across multiple key cities, including the metropolises of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Subsequently, we plan to increase the Jio 5G footprint month after month.”

    “By December 2023, which is less than 18 months from today, we will deliver Jio 5G to every town, every taluka, and every tehsil of our country,” he added.

    The company unveiled the AirFiber, a wireless plug-and-play 5G hotspot that does not require fibre cables and provides a personal Wi-Fi hotspot at home or in the office.

    Reliance Jio chairman Akash Ambani said, “Jio 5G is an ultra-high-speed fixed-broadband. Since you get ber-like speeds over the air without any wires, we are calling it JioAirFiber. With JioAirFiber, it will be really easy to quickly connect your home or office to Gigabit-speed Internet. We have developed a JioAirFiber Home Gateway, which is a wireless, simple, single-device solution.”

    Mukesh Ambani further added, “Digital Freedom is the birthright of every Indian. Therefore, 5G cannot remain an exclusive service, available only to the privileged few or only to those in our largest cities. To build our pan-India true 5G network, we have committed.”

    “We are working with Google to develop ultra-affordable 5G smartphones for India. We will also leverage the advanced capabilities of Google Cloud to offer Jio’s private 5G stack and other 5G-enabled solutions to both domestic and global users at scale,” said Akash Ambani.

    Jio has 421 million mobile broadband subscribers on their 4G network, and according to the company, they consume, on average, nearly 20 GB of broadband data every month, nearly doubling their consumption from the year before.

    Jio’s pan-India fibre-optic network is more than 11 lakh kilometres in length.

    “We will use our combined wireless and wireline assets to cover 3.3 million square kilometres, India’s total land mass, with fibre-quality broadband, connecting even those parts of the country where satellite technology was the only option,” said Mukesh Ambani.

    The company has deployed the Made-In-India 5G stack in their network, with sufficient capacity to serve hundreds of millions of users right from day one.

    “Using 5G technology, we can dramatically reduce latency or lag, and deliver breakthrough increases in broadband speed, network capacity, and the number of connected users,”  said Mukesh Ambani.

    According to Reliance Jio, the main objective is to roll out top-quality, highly affordable fixed broadband services to hundreds of millions of locations in a very short period of time.

    Jio believes it could expand broadband availability to further stimulate the adoption of connected intelligent solutions across all walks of life.

    Mukesh Ambani said, “We will connect over 100 million homes with unparalleled digital experiences and smart home solutions. We will catapult tens of millions of small merchants and small businesses to great heights, empowering them with cutting-edge, plug-and-play solutions delivered from the cloud. We will provide millions of medium-sized businesses with the same digital capabilities that were earlier available only to larger companies.”

    “We will accelerate the digital transformation of tens of thousands of our large enterprises and make them globally competitive. And we will launch billions of smart sensors with connected intelligence that will trigger the internet of things and fuel the fourth industrial revolution,” he concluded.

    In FY22. Reliance Industries has continued to make all-around progress across its businesses. The company became India’s first corporate to cross $100 billion in annual revenues. Reliance’s consolidated revenues grew 47 per cent to Rs 7.93 lakh crore. Reliance’s annual consolidated Ebitda crossed a crucial milestone of Rs 1.25 lakh crore.

  • Akash Ambani to take over as the chairman of Reliance Jio as Mukesh Ambani steps down

    Akash Ambani to take over as the chairman of Reliance Jio as Mukesh Ambani steps down

    Mumbai: Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries, announced on Tuesday that Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani has resigned his position at the company effective from 27 June. Akash Ambani, who is a non-executive director on the board of the company, will take over as the chairman of Indian telecom conglomerate.

    Further, Pankaj Mohan Pawar will take over as the managing director of the company, according to the decisions taken at Jio’s board of directors meeting held on 27 June 2022. The appointment is for a period of five years commencing from 27 June 2022, subject to approval of the shareholders.

    In a regulatory filing, Reliance Jio said the company’s board at a meeting on 27 June, “approved the appointment of Akash M Ambani, non-executive director, as chairman of the board of directors of the company.”

    Among other decisions taken by the company’s board of directors at the meeting held on Monday were appointing Raminder Singh Gujral and KV Chowdary as independent directors of the company for a period of five years commencing from 27 June 2022.

    The board noted the resignation of Mukesh D Ambani as director of the company effective from close of working hours on 27 June, even as it approved the appointment of Akash M Ambani, non-executive director as chairman of the board of directors of the company.

  • Exclusive: IPL franchise Punjab Kings revenues to grow by 20-25 per cent this season

    Exclusive: IPL franchise Punjab Kings revenues to grow by 20-25 per cent this season

    Mumbai: This season, the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Punjab Kings revenue will grow by 20-25 per cent. This will be a mix of central revenue and local revenue. Speaking to IndianTelevision.com Punjab Kings co-owner Mohit Burman says that revenues are up by 25 per cent and quite a bit of this jump is from local sponsorship revenue on the jersey and centrally one or two sponsors have been added. 

    “Licensing and merchandising and ticketing will not impact the P&L. The BCCI running ticketing centrally. Licensing and merchandising has never given money because you do not have the regulation to curtail spurious jerseys that are made in your name and sold outside stadiums. You will never end up making big money from this area. It will only be a small amount of money,” he tells. 

    Only two sponsorship deals open up on the jersey next year. So the franchise will have to wait two years to do new sponsorship deals. Non-jersey sponsorship deals can be done in the digital space but the value is much less. While the franchise has reached just one IPL final back in 2014, he maintains that it has not made a difference in terms of sponsorship revenue of more than 15 per cent. 

    Sponsors look for brand visibility at the end of the day and also doing activation with the franchise’s players. “It is all measured back to what the viewership is, the number of games and so and so forth,” Burman says, adding that, “The two new franchises that came in Lucknow and Gujarat benefitted when they did sponsorship deals because there was not enough inventory in the market. The other franchises he explains were riding out Covid and so earlier did long-term deals. It is a question of demand and supply. The two new teams commanded a premium rate maybe of 50 per cent. This has nothing to do about whether a team has won or not.”

    He further says that this year the franchises sponsors have focused more on digital activation. There have not been many commercial shots by Punjab King’s sponsors. “They are doing digital activities which both the players and consumers love.” 

    He also notes the growing trend of sponsors like Jio, Amul, Boat doing deals across franchises. The advantage he says is that the brand gets constant exposure regardless of who is playing.

    He says that earlier in a normal situation the franchise did not make as much from ticketing compared to other franchises like Mumbai. That is because Punjab is a very price-sensitive market and it was hard to sell more than 20,000 tickets for a match through the stadium capacity might have been 25-28,000.  

    Most of the franchise’s revenue comes from the central pool and Burman hesitates when asked to what extent central revenue’s contribution could rise with the media rights auction next month. But he does say that the BCCI splitting the media rights into broadcast and digital was needed to fully exploit the potential rights value. 

    When asked about the fall in TV viewership he says that a lot of it has gone to digital through mobiles but this is not being measured properly because there is no single currency yet to measure digital. “Digital is not officially measured. So you do not get the real numbers. There is no body controlling digital measurement. The fact though remains that there is a huge shift where people are viewing IPL matches on the mobile. People sometimes mirror the IPL on their TV. The digital value and cost of streaming the IPL will both go up,” he shares.

    In terms of future sources of revenue, he points out digital streams like NFTs, metaverse. “It is early days in terms of NFTs. Crypto has to get regulated but it is big money. We also have a $3 million offer sitting on the table regarding the digital rights of our players. From this content can be created. The BCCI has to approve of it,” he tells. 

    In the pure cricketing space academies is something being pursued big time. In terms of academies, he says that it will be in catchments areas which is Punjab, Kashmir, Haryana. A central Academy will be set up in Punjab, to begin with. The concept is to then set up Academies in other parts of the country. “We have a huge catchment area in North America and the UK which we will possibly explore. We will do scouting and find potential boys who can be funneled into the system. We will use the help of the local federation.” 

    When asked about the franchise changing its name to Punjab Kings he said that the aim was to use the name Punjab first which is what other franchises do apart from Bangalore. “People must immediately attach the franchise to the market. We wanted to attribute ourselves to the State we come from.” He adds that operating in a Covid environment has been difficult but it was a bigger challenge for the BCCI. “The fact is that we have pulled off all three seasons quite well. The challenge for us was staying in the bubble and keeping everyone on their toes and happy.” 

    He also explains that costs did not go up due to Covid. That is because matches were played only in one or two venues. So air travel and hotel costs were saved. “This season we are playing in Mumbai. Otherwise we would have been travelling to different cities and spending money on transport and logistics. Things have evened out.” Beyond the IPL Burman owns the St. Lucia franchise in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in West Indies. He is happy about how the ownership has turned out and says that the franchise was profitable from the first year. 

    “We got the franchise at the right price and we did central deals even before we picked up the franchise. We will probably make money on the jersey also. The local government supports our team and we also have a big sponsor. Our revenue split between central and local revenue is almost equitable.” He is also interested in the upcoming league from Cricket South Africa (CSA) but notes that it is in its formative stage.. Right now the Big Bash League in Australia does not allow for outsiders to own a franchise. “Otherwise we would definitely explore it due to viewership and there is a lot of interest in India on the Big Bash League.”

    He adds that he is not interested in non-cricket leagues. Years ago Burman had exited the now-defunct Hockey India League because the math was not adding up. “We have to be sure that we will get a return on investment. We do not get into any league if we know that there is no money to make. Ideally, we would like to make money in the first year itself which is what we did in the CPL. We look at leagues where the cricket board is involved as there will be accountability,” he concludes. 

  • Sahas Malhotra named as CEO of JioSaavn

    Sahas Malhotra named as CEO of JioSaavn

    Mumbai: JioSaavn has appointed entertainment industry veteran Sahas Malhotra as its new CEO. With his appointment, the music company aims to continue providing enhanced holistic audio experience to consumers, it said.

    “In this role, Malhotra will be based out of the company’s headquarters in Mumbai and lead its endeavors in a constantly evolving and exciting Indian market,” said the statement.

    Before joining JioSaavn, he was associated with Amazon Music as a director. He brings on board an experience of twenty four years in the entertainment industry, in building teams, film marketing, music P&L management, licensing, media planning, music publishing and product management.

    Over the years, Malhotra has also worked with renowned industry players like Sony Music India and Tips Industries. At Tips Industries, Sahas was leading the business at Tips Music and marketing for Tips Film production, in addition to leading extensive marketing verticals for the business.

    As the director of digital and new business at Sony Music India for  over 12 years, he successfully led his team to achieve revenue targets in the fast-changing entertainment industry. In addition, Malhotra also led Sony Music India’s digital P&L and mentored teams across media planning, media buying, promotions, marketing alliances and new business development departments.

    His impressive track record also includes extensive understanding of mobile value-added services, online music, online video marketing, syndication, media planning & buying, music publishing, TV, print & radio marketing, social media marketing, online advertising and film marketing.

  • Mzaalo partners with Jio to deliver digital entertainment to rural India

    Mzaalo partners with Jio to deliver digital entertainment to rural India

    Mumbai: Gamified video and entertainment ecosystem Mazaalo has announced its strategic partnership with Jio. Through this partnership, Mzaalo’s content catalogue and rewards ecosystem will be available on Jio’s low-cost phones and will be freely accessible for millions of rural Indians most of whom are first-time internet users.

    Mzaalo app will be native in the JioStore for all JioPhones powered by KaiOS. 150 million+ low-cost Jio phone users will have access to the app’s library of 12,000+ content pieces including Bollywood films, regional cinema, original series, and music videos. They will also have an opportunity to earn rewards across 600+ brand partners, said the statement.

    “As internet penetration grows deeper across India, there is a growing demand for quality online video streaming content,” said Mzaalo COO Vikram Tanna. “The collaboration with Jio enables us to expand our digital footprint and democratise digital entertainment for the Indian hinterland.”

    The Indian hinterland – the remote parts of the country comprise about 65 per cent of India’s population, nearly 900 million people. While mobile services have reached this population, it is not as widespread as it is in urban cities. This partnership between Mzaalo and Jio will provide a new opportunity for those who do not have access to the mobile phone economy.

    In addition to this partnership, Mzaalo has also been chosen to join the Jio Developers Build for Bharat Growth Pad Program. As a member, Mzaalo and its community will receive special program benefits like first market access program, year-round technical support from Jio, an exclusive community of leaders for mentorship within Jio’s rich leadership ecosystem, JioAds credits, tools and services, training on Jio Developer Tools, and more.

  • Jio invests $15 million in deep tech startup Two Platforms

    Jio invests $15 million in deep tech startup Two Platforms

    Mumbai: Jio Platforms Ltd on Friday announced an investment of $15 million in Two Platforms Inc, a Silicon Valley-based deep tech startup founded by Pranav Mistry, for a 25 per cent equity stake on a fully diluted basis.

    Two will work collaboratively with Jio to fast-track the adoption of new technologies and build disruptive technologies such as AI, metaverse, and mixed realities, said the statement.

    Two is an artificial reality company with focus on building interactive and immersional AI experiences. After text and voice, it believes the next chapter of AI is visual and interactive. Two’s artificial reality platform enables real-time AI voice and video calls, digital humans, immersive spaces and lifelike gaming. The company plans to bring its interactive AI technologies first to consumer applications, followed by entertainment and gaming, as well as enterprise solutions including retail, services, education, health and wellness.

    The founding team at Two has several years of leadership experience in research, design and operations with leading global technology companies.

    Speaking on the investment, Jio director Akash Ambani said, “We are impressed with the strong experience and capabilities of the founding team at Two in the areas of AI/ ML, AR, metaverse and Web 3.0. We look forward to working together with Two to help expedite development of new products in the areas of interactive AI, immersive gaming and metaverse.”

    “Jio is foundational to India’s digital transformation. We at TWO are excited to partner with it to push the boundaries of AI and introduce applications of artificial reality to consumers and businesses at scale,” added Two CEO Pranav Mistry.

  • Reliance net profit jumps 41 % YoY to reach Rs 18,549 crores in Q3

    Reliance net profit jumps 41 % YoY to reach Rs 18,549 crores in Q3

    Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) continued its golden run, and posted a net profit of Rs 18,549 crores for the third quarter ended 31 December 2021. This is an increase of 41 per cent from ₹13,101 crore reported a year ago during the same period.

    The company had posted a profit of Rs 13,680 crore in the September 2021 quarter.

    “I am happy to announce that Reliance has posted best-ever quarterly performance in 3Q FY22 with a strong contribution from all our businesses. Both our consumer businesses, Retail, and Digital services have recorded the highest ever revenues and EBITDA,” said RIL chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani on Friday.

    Ambani said the company continued to focus on strategic investments and partnerships across its businesses to drive future growth in the last quarter. “Retail business activity has normalised with strong growth in key consumption baskets on the back of festive season and as lockdowns eased across the country. Our digital services business has delivered broad-based, sustainable, and profitable growth through improved customer engagement and subscriber mix,” he added.

    The consolidated revenue for the company by market-capitalisation grew to Rs 1,91,271 crore, up by 62 percent for the quarter from Rs 1,17,860 crore in the year-ago period. Revenues in the previous quarter stood at Rs 1,67,611 crore.

    Reliance Jio’s revenue rise five per cent at Rs 19,347 crore

    The net profit of Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of the company rose 10 per cent YoY to Rs 3,615 crore for Q3. It was Rs 3,291 crore in the last year period. The revenue rose five per cent at ₹19,347 crore as against ₹18,492 crore in the last year period. “Jio now has over five million connected wireline customers and has been consistently enhancing its FTTH product with new apps on STB, Society Centrex, 4K content on JioTV+, Home Secure, Home Automation, LiveTV and Gaming solutions,” the conglomerate said.

    Jio also undertook ~20 per cent hike across prepaid plans effective 1 December 2021 in line with other industry operators. According to the company, while the ARPU is set to improve to Rs 151.6 led by a better subscriber mix and recent tariff hike, the full impact of tariff hike will be reflected in ARPU and financials over the next few quarters. During 3Q FY22, average data and voice consumption per user per month increased to 18.4 GB and 901 minutes, respectively.

    Meanwhile, Jio continues to maintain its top position in the 4G speed chart with a 22.0 Mbps average download speed in December 2021, according to the latest Telecom Authority of India (Trai) report.

    Ambani also highlighted that the recovery in global oil and energy markets supported strong fuel margins and helped its O2C business deliver robust earnings. “Our Oil & Gas segment delivered strong growth in EBITDA with volume growth and improved realisation. We are making steady progress towards achieving our vision of Net Carbon Zero by 2035. Our recent partnerships and investments in technology leaders in the solar and green energy space is illustrative of our commitment to partner India and the World in the transition to clean and green energy. We continue to pursue growth initiatives and collaborate with global leaders who share our vision of a sustainable future for our planet,” he added.