Reliance JioCinema partners with Pokemon for Kids Entertainment
India's Reliance entertainment arm has inked an agreement with The Pokemon Company to feature children's shows and movies on its platform, according to sources familiar with the deal. This move aims to enhance content offerings in response to domestic competition from entities like the Walt Disney Co and other streaming services. The recently signed deal designates JioCinema's streaming app as the 'exclusive' India platform partner for over 1,000 episodes and about 20 movies from the Japanese anime series. Financial specifics of the deal remain undisclosed.
The source disclosed that the shows and movies would undergo dubbing into three Indian languages to broaden their appeal. The Pokemon franchise, known for its diverse media offerings including trading cards, games, TV shows, and movies, has signed an exclusive deal with JioCinema's streaming app, a joint venture between Viacom18, led by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and The Pokemon Company, owned by Nintendo and affiliates. Both entities did not respond to requests for comments regarding the deal. Mukesh Ambani's strategy to enhance child-centric content on JioCinema aligns with the aim to expand within India's burgeoning streaming market, projected to reach a value of $7 billion by 2027 as estimated by research firm Media Partners Asia.
JioCinema faces competition from platforms like Netflix and Amazon, with Ambani focusing particularly on challenging Disney's Hotstar app, offering free streaming of cricket matches. The upcoming addition to JioCinema's catalog will include approximately 3,000 hours of children's content, sourced from Entertainment One, Animaccord, Cartoon Network Studios, and DreamWorks. These additions will either come through existing content deals of Viacom18 or integration with its former streaming app, Voot Kids, which has been discontinued. Although some Pokemon content was previously available on Voot, the new partnership with JioCinema signifies a notably larger collaboration, as stated by one of the sources.
NBCUniversal informed Reuters about their involvement in a multi-year partnership with JioCinema announced in May, encompassing 'kids and family programming', including content from DreamWorks. However, Entertainment One, Animaccord, and Cartoon Network Studios did not respond to requests for comment. Additionally, in April, Viacom18 struck a deal with Warner Bros Discovery Inc., augmenting JioCinema's content library with more Hollywood and international content such as popular series like 'Succession' and 'Game of Thrones'.