JioCinema Investor Uday Shankar Hails India’s Next Video Revolution: ‘Now Is the Time to Create an Alternative to Television’
variety.comPatrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Uday Shankar, the former head of Disney in India, says that “limitless” changes to the Indian media landscape may soon leave behind conventional ideas of television and video.
The great disruptor is JioCinema, part of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries conglomerate, and in which Shankar is a major investor.
JioCinema, which operates streaming services, and is allied with Viacom18, sits alongside the cluster of Jio companies that have, in just a matter of years, exploded the cellular telephony business in India and are doing the same with broadband internet access and video. “JioCinema is trying to lead the development of video.
The limitations of television have been exposed now, though some people refuse to see them,” said Shankar this week, speaking at the APOS convention in Indonesia. “The data revolution gave us opportunity.” He explained that the recent arrival of mobile broadband meant that for half of the Indian population, their first screen experience was on a mobile device.
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