The telecom venture of Reliance Industries, Reliance Jio Infocomm is planning to establish itself as a digital content company to stand out from the rest of the telecom operators. The main element of the Mukesh Ambani-led company’s strategy will be content-streaming packages.
Content Strategy of Reliance Jio
Reliance Jio will offer content-streaming packages along with bandwidth and talk time. Other companies in the market provide a combination of data and voice packs. A few companies also offer access to popular social networking sites like WhatsApp and Facebook for a limited period. The offer from Reliance Jio will go well beyond this.
Reliance Jio will allow users to view 5 movies a month, or a live match without charging them extra. The connectivity will be funded by a transaction on Jio's payments bank platform. The charges for data and voice will all be included in the content purchases.
“The company's internal calculations show that even in this (content) model, it should have monetization of 60-80 per GB of data consumed”, a source familiar with the company’s strategy informed. Other companies provide around 1 GB of data for INR 150 to INR 200.
Reliance Industries’ Focus on Content
Reliance Jio’s main focus will be on content-driven strategy. However, it will offer a bundle of data and voice packages as well. At the annual general meeting held in June, Chairman Mukesh Ambani had revealed that the company will offer calling and internet services at the rate of INR 300 to INR 400. Thesecharges are one-third of the present market rates. Reliance Jio may thus pose a threat for the business of other major players like Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, and Idea.
Reliance Industries focuses on content through varied mediums. It is the owner of a leading media group in the country, Network 18. Network 18 is a film producer and operates a number of TV channels. Reliance Jio also runs applications like Chat, TV Viewer, and Money. It sponsored the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, which was held recently. Besides, Reliance Industries have franchises in the Indian Premier League and Indian Soccer League.
Preparations for Reliance 4G
Since the last five years, Reliance Jio has been working to set up its high-speed data network. It is expected to launch its 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) services in December. Mr. Ambani and his core team members Pankaj Pawar and Kiran Thomas are keeping a close watch on Jio's progress from their new office in Navi Mumbai. His children, Akash and Isha are also playing key roles in Reliance Jio’s launch.
Reliance Jio is making a client application that will enable all phone devices to use Reliance Jio’s services in an optimizedmanner. The retail arm of Reliance Industries, Reliance Retail,has signed agreements with mobile phone makers like LG,Intex, Lenovo, and Micromax for selling Voice over LTE (VoLTE) mobile phones before the launch of Reliance Jio.
Reliance Jio aims to get 100 million users in 100 days. It has appointed 50 customer acquisition and relationship managers. These will be working with their respective teams to get 10 lakh new customers each, in the initial 2 months.
Summary
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited will be focusing on a digital content strategy to compete with its rivals.