NETWORK18

By Aditya Kalra and Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Digital news units of Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, and other outlets like the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times, have mounted a legal challenge against OpenAI's improper use of copyright content, legal papers show.

The media outlets including Adani's NDTV NDTV.NS and Ambani's Network18 NEFI.NS have told a New Delhi court they want to join an ongoing lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator, as they are worried their news websites are being scraped to store and reproduce their work to users of the powerful AI tool.

Reuters is first to report the case filing by the digital news publishers, which escalates an ongoing legal battle against ChatGPT in India. In the most high-profile battle, local news agency ANI was first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI last year. Global and Indian book publishers have also now joined in.

The 135-page case filing in the New Delhi court, which is not public but was reviewed by Reuters, argues OpenAI's conduct constitutes "a clear and present danger to the valuable copyrights" of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) members and other outlets.

It refers to OpenAI's "wilful scraping ... and adaptation of content".

Courts across the world are hearing claims by authors, news outlets and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyright work to train AI services and who are seeking to have content used to train the chatbot deleted.

The filing was made by the Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Adani's NDTV and the DNPA, which represents roughly 20 companies including Mukesh Ambani Network18 and players like Dainik Bhaskar. Many of these outlets have a flourishing newspaper and television news business too.

The Times of India is not taking part in the legal challenge despite being member of the DNPA.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the new allegations. It has repeatedly denied such allegations, saying its AI systems make fair use of publicly available data.

None of the Indian media companies immediately responded to Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sonali Paul)

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** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS fall as much as 4.7% to 58.6 rupees, last down 4.5%

** Co reports Dec-qtr consol net loss of 14.35 bln rupees ($165.8 mln) from loss of 588.2 mln rupees a year ago

** Reports one-time expense of 14.26 bln rupees related to Viacom 18 ceasing to be a unit of co

** Rev falls 23.3% to 13.61 bln rupees

** NEFI has been below its 200-day simple moving avgs since Sept, indicating bearish sentiment

** More than 7.6 mln shares traded, 1.7x its 30-day moving avg

** Stock declined 18.1% in 2024

($1 = 86.5650 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru)

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Jan 14 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS DEC-QUARTER CONSOL NET LOSS 14.35 BILLION RUPEES

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS DEC-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 13.61 BILLION RUPEES

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS - Q3 ONE-TIME EXPENSE OF 14.26 BILLION RUPEES ON DERECOGNITION OF UNITS

Source text: ID:nBSE5DNBSg

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS fall 4.5% to 63.6 rupees, their lowest since Oct. 4, 2023, amid a broader muted market

** Stock set for fifth straight week of losses, if trend holds

** Reuters could not immediately ascertain the reason behind the day's move

** NEFI set for its busiest week in three, with over 16.7 mln shares traded

** Stock fell 18% in 2024 vs 23% decline in the Nifty Media index .NIFTYMED

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru)

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Oct 23 (Reuters) - India's New Delhi Television (NDTV) NDTV.NS posted its fourth-straight quarterly loss on Wednesday, as the news broadcaster's expenses surged.

The company, 64.7% of which is owned by ports-to-energy conglomerate Adani Group, reported a loss of 527.7 million rupees ($6.28 million) for the July-September quarter, compared to a profit of 59.1 million rupees in the year-ago period.

NDTV's total expenses surged 76% on the back of a jump in operating as well as production and marketing costs, as it continued to invest in newly launched TV channels and infrastructure.

The company, which runs news channels, said its revenue from operations rose 16.5% to 1.11 billion rupees in the latest quarter, attributing it to enhanced content strategy, an expanding portfolio of intellectual properties, and strategic digital initiatives.

Indian consumer good makers, who typically spend the most on advertising on television, have reined in their expenses as they grapple with muted demand for their products amid rising living costs.

That has weighed on advertising-dependent media companies.

In the past couple of weeks, Zee Enterprises ZEE.NS, which runs its eponymous TV serial and entertainment channels, posted a decline in ad revenue. Reliance group-controlled Network18 Media NEFI.NS, which owns both news and entertainment channels, said its TV news ad revenue was soft during the quarter.

NDTV did not disclose its ad revenue for the quarter.

The company's shares dropped after the results, closing 0.8% lower.

Other rivals TV Today Network TVTO.NS and Zee Media Corporation ZEEN.NS are expected to post results later this month.

($1 = 84.0650 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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** Shares of TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS and Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS rise 5.5% and 6.3%, respectively

** Parent Reliance Industries RELI.NS expects merger of co's and Disney's DIS.N Indian media assets to be completed in third quarter of FY25

** Cos, which already have approval from India's antitrust watchdog and company tribunal for the merger, are in process of obtaining other approvals

** Merger of TV18, E18 with Network18 was sanctioned by the company tribunal and made effective on Oct 3

** NEFI sees busiest session since Aug 30; TVEB marks second busiest day in a week

** NEFI, TVEB down 3% and 11% YTD, respectively

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru)

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** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS fall as much as 3.2% to 78.8 rupees

** Media co reported a wider Q2 consol net loss of 958.4 mln rupees ($11.4 mln) from a loss of 830.8 mln rupees a year ago

** Q2 rev fell 2.2% YoY, with larger entertainment segment down 5.4%, and total expenses rose 1.7%

** Stock on track to fall for third straight month

** More than 1.2 mln shares traded as of 10:32 a.m. IST, vs 30-day moving avg of over 3.1 mln shares

** NEFI last down 2.4%, adding to YTD losses of 9.5% so far

($1 = 84.0670 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Meenakshi Maidas in Bengaluru)

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Oct 4 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• GOVERNMENT APPROVES TRANSFER OF LICENSES HELD BY TV18 TO CO

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSEg8kPh

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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** Shares of Reliance Industries RELI.NS-owned Network18 Media NEFI.NS and TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS climb 8.5% and 10.6%, respectively

** India's competition regulator on Wednesday approved $8.5 billion-merger of the Indian media assets of Reliance and Walt Disney DIS.N

** Network18 and TV18 Broadcast will merge as Reliance consolidates its broadcast business

** TVEB and NEFI both see most active session since Jan.

** Including day's gains, TVEB is up 6% YTD, while NEFI has climbed 20% in the same period

(Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru)

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July 4 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• RE-APPOINTS RAHUL JOSHI AS MD

Source text for Eikon: ID:nNSE9yq2kN

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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** Shares of TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS fall as much as 4.6% to 45 rupees; last down 2%

** The media company posted consol net loss for the Jan-March qtr from profit a year earlier as expenses jump ~87%, rev from ops up ~66%

** Stock down 2% so far this week, on track to post second straight weekly loss

** Shares fell 8% in Jan-March qtr after posting three consecutive quarterly gains

** Another billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned media firm, Network18 Media NEFI.NS, posted weak results; shares down 2.6%

** Including session's losses, stock down 8% YTD, NEFI and peer NDTV NDTV.NS down 0.2% and 17%, respectively

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru)

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April 18 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL NET LOSS 959.5 MILLION RUPEES VERSUS LOSS 367.8 MILLION RUPEES

• NETWORK18 MEDIA & INVESTMENTS MARCH-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 24.19 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 14.84 BILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE4zBbll

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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March 14 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• DIGITAL18 MEDIA CEASED TO BE WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF COMPANY

Source text for Eikon: ID:nNSE5G98gy

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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** Reliance Industries RELI.NS up 1%, top gainer on blue-chip Nifty 50 .NSEI, which is flat

** Reliance and Disney DIS.N merge their Indian TV, streaming assets, creating an $8.5 bln entertainment juggernaut

** However, RELI gains come after stock dropped 2% on Weds amid a broader market pullback

** Rivals Zee Entertainment ZEE.NS and Sun TV Network SUTV.NS fell over 2% on the day before pulling back

** Reliance-controlled Network 18 NEFI.NS and TV 18 TVEB.NS down nearly 5% each

** RELI has surged 30% since late Oct, on first media reports of possible deal; Nifty has gained 14% in same period

** In that time, Sun TV has lost 3.5% while Zee has slumped 35%, with most losses coming after collapse of merger with Sony India in late Jan

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru)

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Corrects typo in company name in headline

** Shares of Reliance Industries-owned Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS jump 10% to 130.4 rupees

** U.S.-based investor KKR KKR.N in advanced negotiations to invest $250 mln-$300 mln in online ticketing firm BookMyShow, Economic Times reports, citing sources

** NEFI largest shareholder in BookMyShow, owns 37% stake

** KKR valuing BookMyShow at 75 bln rupees ($902 mln) - ET; co last raised funds in 2018, securing $100 mln from private equity firm TPG

** TV18 Broadcast Ltd shares rise 9%, both media firms up after 3-day losing run

** Both stocks opened down after each reporting losses in Q3

** NEFI rose 32% in 2023, while TVEB grew 36%, outperforming Nifty Media Index's ~20% rise

($1 = 83.1175 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru)

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Jan 16 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• DEC-QUARTER CONSOL NET LOSS 580.8 MILLION RUPEES VERSUS LOSS 76.8 MILLION RUPEES

• DEC-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 17.74 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 18.5 BILLION RUPEES

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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** Shares of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Network18 NEFI.NS and TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS up 20% and 16%, respectively

** NEFI shares hit highest since Aug 2011 at 119.40 rupees, while TVEB rises to highest since April 2022

** More than 11 mln TVEB shares and 7.3 mln NEFI shares change hands in multiple blocks - LSEG data

** Overall, ~170 mln TVEB shares traded as of 12:00 p.m IST, 6x the 30-day avg,

** TVEB sees most active session since April 2022

** Nearly 53 mln NEFI shares traded in morning session, 5x the 30-day avg

** TV18 Broadcast to merge with Network18 in $1.2 bln deal, effective April 2024

(Reporting by Sethuraman NR)

(([email protected]; (+91 9945291420); Reuters Messaging: [email protected]))

** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS up 4.4% at 89.85 rupees

** Economic Times reported Monday that a unit under NEFI-owned Viacom18 would take control of Disney's Star India as part of Reliance-Disney India media ops merger

** NEFI parent Reliance to own 51% stake in merged Disney entity - ET

** Reliance and Disney did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the report

** Over 9.2 mln NEFI shares change hands, a little over stock's 30-day moving avg volume of 9 mln

** Stock up 36% so far this year, outperforming Nifty Media index's .NIFTYMED 20% rise

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru)

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** Indian media companies TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS and Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS down as much as 10.94% and 10.31%, respectively, to 50.05 rupees and 88.3 rupees

** Cos announce $1.2 billion merger deal to help cut costs and expand reach

** NEFI to issue 100 shares for every 172 shares of TVEB, valuing the latter at a 1.9% premium to its closing price on Wednesday

** The two stocks had surged 33.7% and 18.8% each, in the previous six sessions

** Stocks last down 7.3% and 7.6% each, Nifty media index NIFTYMED is down 0.5%

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru)

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BENGALURU, Dec 6 (Reuters) - India's Reliance-owned TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS will merge with Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS in an all stock deal, the two companies said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto; Editing by Sohini Goswami)

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By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The entertainment unit of India's Reliance RELI.NS has signed a deal with The Pokemon Company to show children's shows and movies on its platform, two people with knowledge of the deal said, its latest bid to boost content amid a domestic rivalry with the Walt Disney Co DIS.N and other streaming services.

The deal, signed this month, will make JioCinema's streaming app the "exclusive" India platform partner for more than 1,000 episodes and around 20 movies of the Japanese anime series, one of the sources said, without disclosing any financial details.

The shows and movies will be dubbed into three Indian languages to broaden their appeal, the source added. Pokemon has spawned a global multi-billion dollar media franchise spanning trading cards, games, TV shows and movies.

Viacom18, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's entertainment joint-venture that runs JioCinema, and The Pokemon Company, owned by video game company Nintendo 7974.T and affiliates, did not respond to a request for comment.

Adding child-focused content is Ambani's latest push to expand in the Indian streaming market which research firm Media Partners Asia estimates will be worth $7 billion by 2027.

Netflix NFLX.O and Amazon AMZN.O are among JioCinema's competitors, but Ambani has most recently taken on Disney's Hotstar app, with both offering free streaming of cricket matches.

In total, JioCinema will add around 3,000 hours of children's content, including movies and shows from Entertainment One, Animaccord, Cartoon Network Studios and DreamWorks, the sources said.

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 told Reuters that "kids and family programming", including DreamWorks content, was part of a multi-year partnership with JioCinema announced in May. Entertainment One, Animaccord, Cartoon Network Studios did not respond to requests for comment.

In April, Viacom18 struck a deal with Warner Bros Discovery Inc. WBD.O to include more Hollywood and international content on JioCinema, including hit series "Succession" and "Game of Thrones".

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; editing by Miral Fahmy)

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** Shares of Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS down as much as 4.7% at 66.7 rupees

** Media conglomerate, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, reports widened Q2 consolidated net loss at 609.9 mln rupees ($7.34 million) vs loss of 364.9 mln rupees a year earlier, rev from ops up 20.4% Y/Y

** Total expenses rise ~39%, led by cost of materials consumed, which jumped ~56%

** Advertising demand remains guarded due to soft consumer sentiment - Network18

** Co expects festive season to bring positive momentum

** Nifty media index .NIFTYMED down 1.5%

** Stock up 3.6% YTD, underperforming Nifty media index which is up 8.2%

($1 = 83.1474 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru)

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BENGALURU, Oct 23 (Reuters) - India's New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) NDTV.NS, part of the Adani Group, reported a nearly 51% drop in second quarter profit on Monday, as businesses cut back on advertising spending in the face of rising interest rates.

Consolidated net profit was 59.1 million rupees ($710,803.00) in the three months to Sept. 30, compared with 120.1 million rupees a year earlier, it said in an exchange filing.

Indian broadcasters are grappling with slowing advertising spending as businesses clamp down on discretionary investments to rein in costs amid high inflation and aggressive interest rate hikes.

Still, the company rebounded from a loss in April-June.

Revenue from operations fell nearly 10% to 955.5 million rupees in the September quarter.

The broadcaster is the first among its peers to report quarterly results. Rival TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS and its unit Network18 NEFI.NS will report their earnings later this week.

Another competitor Zee Entertainment Enterprises ZEE.NS will report next month.

Shares of NDTV fell as much as 7.2% after the results. The shares had fallen over 8% during the quarter, as opposed to a more-than-30% jump in the Nifty Media .NIFTYMED index.

NDTV and other listed Adani-owned companies have seen their shares battered since a U.S. short-seller, earlier this year, accused the group of improperly using offshore tax havens and stock manipulation. Adani Group had rejected the allegations.

($1 = 83.1454 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)

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** Shares of TV18 Broadcast TVEB.NS and Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS rise as much as 7.08% and 7.97%, respectively

** Viacom18 wins BCCI's media rights for international and domestic cricket from Sept. 2023 to Mar. 2028 nL4N3AC3H0

** Viacom18 is a JV between the unit of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries RELI.NS - Network18 Group - and Paramount Global

** TVEB and NEFI are among top gainers in media index .NIFTYMED which is up over 0.5%

** More than 28.5 mln shares of TVEB traded by 2:20 p.m. IST, 1.6x the 30-day avg

** More than 8.2 mln shares of NEFI change hands, 3.4x the 30-day avg

** TVEB and NEFI stock up 33% and 7% YTD respectively, compared with media index, which is up 15.7%

(Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru)

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Adds share price in paragraph 2, context from paragraph 4

By Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI, Aug 10 (Reuters) - India paved the way on Thursday for a $10 billion media and entertainment powerhouse, giving Zee Entertainment and the Indian unit of Japan's Sony Group 6758.T a key merger approval.

Zee's ZEE.NS shares were up 16.6% after the National Company Law Tribunal cleared the long-delayed deal to create a company which will be nearly 51% owned by Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and 3.99% by Zee's founders.

The Zee Group is among India's first privately owned television networks and industry executives say the Sony-Zee alliance stands to become the country's biggest industry player, with significant distribution and advertising muscle.

The combination, which was announced in 2021, hit problems after the Securities and Exchange Board of India banned Zee's CEO, who had been lined up to run the merged entity, from the boardrooms of listed companies for a year.

Zee later formed an interim committee under the supervision of its board to run operations after Chief Executive Punit Goenka failed to get the ban overturned at appeal.

Goenka told India's Economic Times in June that the merger would go ahead whether or not he was CEO of the new entity.

In February, an Indian tribunal put on hold insolvency proceedings initiated by lender IndusInd Bank Ltd (INBK.NS) against Zee, in a major relief for the media company. Later, the company settled its dispute with the lender.

Last year, Zee and Sony offered concessions such as pricing discounts to help ease regulatory concerns and received antitrust approval for the merged entity, which will compete with Walt Disney India and billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Network18.

(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi; Editing by Sonia Cheema, Elaine Hardcastle and Alexander Smith)

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July 18 (Reuters) - Network18 Media & Investments Ltd NEFI.NS:

• JUNE-QUARTER CONSOL NET LOSS 387.3 MILLION RUPEES VERSUS LOSS 33.2 MILLION RUPEES

• JUNE-QUARTER CONSOL REVENUE FROM OPERATIONS 32.39 BILLION RUPEES VERSUS 13.40 BILLION RUPEES

Source text for Eikon: ID:nBSE2xNh4n

Further company coverage: NEFI.NS

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By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil

NEW DELHI, June 2 (Reuters) - Streaming giants Netflix, Amazon and Disney on Friday privately discussed a possible legal challenge and other ways to stall India's new tobacco warning rules, amid fears they will need to edit millions of hours of existing web content, sources said.

The pushback is the latest headache for streaming giants in India, a top growth market. Companies often face legal cases and police complaints their content sometimes hurt religious sentiment, and many have self-censored content over the years.

As part of India's anti-tobacco drive, the health ministry this week ordered streaming platforms should within three months insert static health warnings during smoking scenes. Also, India wants at least 50 seconds of anti-tobacco disclaimers, including an audio-visual, at the start and in the middle of each program.

In first signs of industry distress, executives of the three global streaming companies, and India's Viacom18 which runs billionaire Mukesh Ambani's JioCinema app, held a closed-door meeting, where Netflix NFLX.O said the rules would hit customer experience and push production houses to block their content in India, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

Executives in India also discussed ways of a possible legal challenge to assert that other ministries - IT and information & broadcasting - have powers over streaming giants, and not the health ministry, said one of the sources.

The companies, and India's health ministry, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters is first to report the industry's planned pushback.

Already, all smoking and alcohol drinking scenes in movies in India's cinemas and on TV, under the law, require health warnings, but so far there were no regulations for the streaming giants, whose content has become increasingly popular.

In 2013, Woody Allen stopped his film, Blue Jasmine, from being screened in India after learning about mandatory anti-tobacco warnings would be inserted into its smoking scenes.

Activists have welcomed new anti-tobacco rules by India, the world's second largest producer of tobacco that kills 1.3 million people each year in the country. India also has stringent cigarette pack warning rules.

HEALTH VS WARNINGS "HARASSMENT"

Truth Initiative, a public health nonprofit group, in March said 60% of the 15 most popular streaming shows among 15- to 24-year-olds it analyzed contained depictions of tobacco, "effectively exposing 25 million young people to tobacco imagery" in 2021.

But in India, companies from Netflix to Amazon AMZN.O to Disney DIS.N, also have popular Hindi content which often shows Bollywood actors smoking, something activists say encourages tobacco use.

India is a hot market for streaming giants, and executives fear business impact and higher costs. Ambani's JioCinema has just in recent weeks signed multiple content deals with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros WBD.O, bringing popular shows like "Succession" and "The Office" on its platform.

Together, the companies have millions of hours of content.

"New content being created needs to be changed and old content needs to be modified. It could require insertion of ad-type warning in between," said Kaushik Moitra, partner at Bharucha & Partners who advises streaming firms and production houses.

During the Friday meeting, Amazon and other companies made the point there was no way films can be edited in three months, said the second source, adding the industry decided to consult lawyers and write letters in protest.

Dylan Mohan Gray, a filmmaker who directed documentaries such as "Fire in the Blood", said the new Indian rules amount to "harassment", saying that murder, war and extremely violent crime scenes were not regulated in the same way.

"Smoking, which though certainly a serious public health problem, is both legal and a massive source of government revenue in this country," he said.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil in New Delhi, and Biplob Kumar Das in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Tony Tharakan and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; editing by David Evans)

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MUMBAI, May 23 (Reuters) - India's Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS plans to raise funds by selling commercial papers maturing in three months, at a yield of 6.99%, three merchant bankers said on Tuesday.

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Sohini Goswami)

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MUMBAI, May 4 (Reuters) - India's Network18 Media & Investments NEFI.NS plans to raise funds by selling commercial papers maturing in three months, two merchant bankers said on Thursday.

The company will offer a yield of 7.25% on this issue for which it has received commitments worth around 2 billion Indian rupees ($24.47 million), the bankers said.

The notes are rated A1+ by ICRA and the terms of the deal were set on Wednesday.

($1 = 81.7300 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

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Adds stock reaction, analyst comment

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, April 27 (Reuters) - The broadcast venture of India's Reliance RELI.NS has struck a deal with Warner Bros Discovery Inc. WBD.O for its streaming platform JioCinema, making a big push to bring Hollywood content onto the platform and compete against Netflix and Amazon.

The deal between Reliance's Viacom18 would see Warner Bros as well as its HBO content becoming available on Reliance's JioCinema app, including popular movies and shows such as Succession, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series, according to a joint statement by the companies.

Reuters had reported the deal earlier on Thursday, quoting sources.

Shares of Network18 Media and Investments NEFI.NS, Reliance Industries' media entity, rose as much as 13.5% after the Reuters report.

The sources did not disclose the financials of the deal, but the statement described the content partnership as a "new multi-year agreement" which will start next month.

"HBO Original, Max Original and Warner Bros. Television series are set to premiere on JioCinema on the same day as the U.S.," the companies said.

Clement Schwebig, President for India, Southeast Asia and Korea for Warner Bros, said the agreement was part of its commitment to the South Asia market, as the company looks to further strengthen the scale of its regional business.

One source told Reuters that the partnership would be exclusive and see most of Warner's marquee content on the JioCinema platform. Warner cannot offer most of its popular titles to other Indian rivals including Amazon AMZN.O Prime Video and Disney DIS.N Hotstar, the source added.

"It's a deep exclusive arrangement which will make JioCinema the house of Warner, HBO in India," the source said.

The content deal will bring thousands of hours of streaming content onto JioCinema, which has become popular for showing the IPL cricket tournament on the platform for free in the ongoing season.

Viacom18 won the IPL digital streaming rights from 2023 to 2027 for around $2.9 billion, rights which Disney previously held. Viacom18's shareholders include Reliance, Paramount Global PARA.O as well as Bodhi Tree, which is a joint venture between James Murdoch and a former Star India executive, Uday Shankar.

Bodhi Tree recently invested $528 million in Viacom18.

Several of HBO's top rated shows, including Succession, had aired in India on the Disney Hotstar platform until March 31 as part of a deal between the two companies that ended on the date.

The source told Reuters that Warner so far had various arrangements with Indian streaming giants, but the Viacom-Warner deal will see consolidation of that library and will include HBO, Max and Warner content, among others.

JioCinema is seeking to compete with rivals including Netflix and Amazon in a market where such platforms are becoming increasingly popular, thanks to cheap data prices.

"These marquee deals from IPL to HBO are great for not only user acquisition but also for stickiness and mind share," said Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research.

For now, JioCinema is a small player. Netflix outperforms rivals in the subscription video-on-demand market, commanding a 39% share by revenue in 2021 compared to nearest rival Hotstar's 23%, according to Media Partners Asia.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Additional reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Simon Cameron-Moore)

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