Reliance JioCinema signs up with Pokemon to boost children's entertainment

By siliconindia  |  Thursday, 16 November 2023, 11:42:23 AM IST

Reliance JioCinema signs up with Pokemon to boost children's entertainment
India's Reliance Entertainment Unit has signed an agreement with The Pokemon Company to stream children's shows and movies on its platform. This move is aimed at boosting content and competing with other streaming services, including Walt Disney Co., in the domestic market. The agreement was signed in the current month and makes JioCinema's streaming app the exclusive partner in India for over 1,000 episodes and approximately 20 movies of the popular Japanese anime series.
To broaden its appeal, the shows and movies will be dubbed into three Indian languages. The Pokemon franchise has become a global multi-billion dollar media empire that includes trading cards, games, TV shows, and movies. By adding child-focused content, Ambani aims to expand in the Indian streaming market, which is estimated by research firm Media Partners Asia to be worth $7 billion by 2027.
JioCinema competes with Netflix and Amazon, but its latest rival is Disney's Hotstar app, which also streams cricket matches for free. JioCinema plans to include approximately 3,000 hours of children's content, including movies and shows from Entertainment One, Animaccord, Cartoon Network Studios, and DreamWorks.
Those additions will come through Viacom18’s existing content deals or integration with its other streaming app, Voot Kids, which has shut, they added. Some Pokemon content was earlier on Voot, but the new JioCinema deal is a "much larger partnership", one of the sources said. NBCUniversal said that "kids and family programming", including DreamWorks content, was part of a multi-year partnership with JioCinema announced in May. In April, Viacom18 struck a deal with Warner Bros Discovery Inc. to include more Hollywood and international content on JioCinema, including hit series “Succession” and “Game of Thrones”.

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