Reliance Industries is setting up its own production house to develop original web series and short films for customers of its telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm, according to a report by Mint.
The company's aim is to attract more people to Jio's 215-million-strong customer base, particularly in light of the recent launch of its fiber-to-home service Jio GigaFiber.
"Content market is still not properly tapped... Reliance has hired a bunch of scriptwriters and content creators and is in the process of setting up a huge production house," the newspaper quoted a source as saying.
Cheaper mobile data rates have driven popularity for over-the-top (OTT) media services like Amazon and Netflix, who are providing exclusive content on their platforms.
Reliance Industries too has made a series of acquisitions to bolster its content portfolio. In March this year, the company announced that its music service JioMusic is integrating with music streaming platform Saavn.
A month before the Saavn deal, the company had also announced that it had bought 5 percent stake in Eros International Plc. Its aim is to build businesses around the content ecosystem.
Reliance Jio has also partnered with media arts institute Whistling Woods International to set up a laboratory dedicated to virtual reality and augmented reality, with an intention to create a generation of cinematic VR filmmakers.
"Recently, 20-25 creative people have come on board… the company has realised that viewers here are taking to original Indian content on platforms such as Netflix and Amazon in a big way… the company too expects to offer some web series to consumers within 4-6 months," the source said.
(Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)
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