iWorld
Ambani unveils Jio launch, rollout and tariffs
MUMBAI: It promised a lot and it delivered. Reliance Industries Ltd’s 39th annual general meeting saw chairman Mukesh Ambani unveil the roadmap ahead for what is hoped will be the most significant change agent for India’s telecom, broadband business.
Amongst the most significant was the announcement that it will be a voice-free-low data cost provider of 4G LTE services geared for video delivery.
“All over the world operators charge for either data or voice. We have decided to make our voice services free and will never charge for it anytime now or in the future. Jio makes India the highest quality lowest data rates country in the world,” he said.
While other telcos like Airtel, Vodafone, have been offering data plans at Rs 250 per GB, Ambani said Jio’s data plans will be delivered at Rs 50 per GB. “And these will go down the more data you consume,” he informed RIL’s enamoured and enthusiastic shareholders at Mumbai’s Biral Matushree Auditorium this morning. “Your apps and downloads can be happening when you sleep at night at no cost to you.”
He also stated that data will be free on its 4G LTE network at night.
Only 10 plans ranging from Rs 19 to 4999 offering free voice calls and 100 MB to 75 GB a month respectively are on offer. “There are more than 22,000 plans on offer across India from the various telcos. It’s very confusing for the consumer. We wanted to keep it simple – hence just 10 plans,” said Ambani.
Reliance Jio says that it is looking at simplifying billing, sign ups to its services. “We have reengineered the sign up process to e-KYC and it will be linked to your Aadhar card. The process will take a customer 15 minutes and you will walk away with your active connection,” said Ambani.
He also announced that subscription to Reliance Jio’s apps – valued at Rs 15,000 – was being given away to subscribers free until 31 December 2017 .
Students would also have an offer which will provide them with 25 per cent more data at the same price. Ambani said Jio was in the process of connecting a majority of India’s schools and colleges so that students could have access to broadband wifi in their classrooms. The company was in the process of setting up a million wifi hot spots across the country.
Ambani pointed out that Jio was being officially launched from 5 September 2016 with a welcome offer that all of Jio services will be available to Indians free until 31 December 2016. One of the reasons for this, he expressed, was that the company had been surprised by the way villagers had taken to the internet. And he wanted India’s rural heartlands to experience mobile broaband on 4G LTE for a few months.
iWorld
Banijay Asia’s The 50 tops OTT charts with 8.1 million JioHotstar views
Reality competition becomes most watched show on JioHotstar in debut week.
MUMBAI: Fifty contestants walked into a palace, but millions of viewers showed up for the drama. Reality competition The 50, produced by Banijay Asia, has emerged as the most watched show on JioHotstar, clocking 8.1 million views in its debut week. The figure, reported by Ormax Media, places the show at the top of the OTT viewership charts and marks a strong opening for the digital reality format.
Adapted from a popular French format, The 50 brings together 50 personalities from television, digital platforms, music and reality shows inside a grand palace setting. Over the course of a 50 day competition, participants form alliances, compete in unpredictable tasks and navigate eliminations as the field steadily narrows.
Guiding the game is a mysterious figure known as The Lion, an unseen game master whose voice introduces twists, challenges and strategic turns throughout the show, adding an extra layer of suspense to the contest.
What distinguishes The 50 from typical reality competitions is its audience driven prize structure. Instead of the winner taking home the final reward, the prize is awarded to one of the winner’s registered followers through the show’s dedicated app. The mechanism effectively turns viewers into participants, allowing fans to have a direct stake in the outcome.
The contestant lineup features a mix of television actors, reality stars and digital creators, including Karan Patel, Urvashi Dholakia, Divya Agarwal, Mr Faisu and Dushyant Kukreja, each bringing their own fan following to the show.
With its blend of celebrity personalities, strategic gameplay and interactive viewer participation, The 50 has quickly carved out a strong foothold in India’s digital entertainment landscape. Its 8.1 million views in the opening week underline the growing appetite for large scale reality formats designed specifically for OTT audiences.
