By Aditya Kalra and Aftab Ahmed

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s streaming platform JioCinema introduced premium pricing of 999 Indian rupees ($12) a yr, its first step to maneuver away from a free content material mannequin to combat international rivals comparable to Netflix (NASDAQ:) and Disney within the nation.

The transfer comes weeks after a Reliance’s Viacom18 struck a content material cope with Warner Bros, that may make accessible in style HBO and Warner titles comparable to “Succession” and people that includes the character Harry Potter on the JioCinema platform.

The JioCinema web site on Saturday confirmed the brand new premium pricing for Hollywood content material, with the much-awaited Succession sequence accessible for streaming.

A number of of HBO’s top-rated exhibits, together with Succession, had aired in India on the Disney Hotstar platform till March 31 as a part of a deal between the 2 firms that ended on that date.

JioCinema has grow to be in style for displaying the IPL cricket match on the platform at no cost within the ongoing season. The brand new pricing, in keeping with the web site, is just for premium content material, whereas the matches proceed to stream at no cost.

Viacom18 gained the IPL digital streaming rights from 2023 to 2027 for round $2.9 billion, rights which Disney beforehand held.

Ambani has a repute of disrupting rivals within the price-sensitive Indian market with low cost presents.

Karan Taurani, a senior vp of India’s Elara Capital specialising within the media and leisure sectors, mentioned Reliance’s streaming provide worth was on the decrease finish versus rivals that however extra content material can be wanted to succeed.

“Solely with pure play HBO content material you could not get a big scale (of consumers) … 999 positively is on the decrease finish of the band, lots of the different platforms, they’re all within the vary of 1,000 plus and it goes as much as 2,000” rupees, he mentioned.

JioCinema is in talks with varied manufacturing studios and has plans to introduce dozens of TV exhibits and flicks on the platform within the coming months, in Hindi and different languages, Reuters reported final month.