Mukesh Ambani and James Murdoch win rights to show ‘Succession’ in India

Tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s media venture Viacom18, which is backed by James Murdoch, has bought the India rights to show films and television from Hollywood giant Warner Bros Discovery, stepping up competition with Disney in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for streaming.

The Warner Bros deal expands Viacom18’s offering from sport to high end entertainment, after the company beat Disney to secure rights to stream the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket competition.

The newly announced deal will from next month let Viacom18’s TV channels and its JioCinema streaming service show Emmy-award winning comedy drama Succession, which is inspired by the life of Murdoch’s media baron father Rupert. It will also host shows from The Last of Us to The White Lotus, and Warner Bros movies like the Harry Potter series in the “multiyear” agreement, whose value was not disclosed.

As streaming services like Netflix have suffered a slowdown in their traditional markets, fast-growing India has become a key battleground for companies desperate to win viewers. Research firm Media Partners Asia expects India’s online video industry to more than double annual revenues to $6.5bn by 2027, and India is estimated to have a streaming audience of more than half a billion people, according to data provider Statista.

Viacom18 is a partnership between Ambani’s Reliance Industries conglomerate, Paramount and a Qatari sovereign wealth fund-backed investment group run by Murdoch and Uday Shankar, a former Disney executive.

The deep-pocketed media group has paid $2.6bn for five-year IPL rights, and is streaming it for free on its JioCinema platform, undercutting Disney’s paid TV coverage. But the Warner Bros deal shows Asia’s richest man Ambani is aiming to target customers willing to shell out for international entertainment.

“There are many Indias within India,” said Mihir Shah, India head at Media Partners Asia. “So while IPL is for the masses, partnership with Warner Bros Discovery is a precursor to JioCinema’s entry into the premium streaming segment.”

Ferzad Palia, Viacom18’s head of streaming and international business, said the deal allowed the network “to offer the best of Hollywood content to our elite consumers”.

Disney is in the process of cutting 7,000 jobs, after billions of dollars in losses from streaming forced a reckoning for Hollywood studios.

Until last month, Disney’s Indian streaming service Disney+ Hotstar had showed Warner Bros’ HBO titles, setting off speculation about which of India’s streaming services would snap up the network, whose popular shows include Game of Thrones.

The lapsing of Disney and HBO’s partnership in India gave Viacom18 an opportunity to challenge Disney on English language content, which Shah said would complement its recently announced slate of local TV shows and movies.