RIL-backed Viacom18 Media to stream FIFA World Cup on Jio Cinema for free

Reliance Industries-backed Viacom18 Media will stream the FIFA World Cup tournament on its Jio Cinema app for free. RIL's broadcasting and digital media company Viacom18 clinched the deal to stream FIFA matches in India last year.

The FIFA World Cup tournament will start on November 18 in Qatar. 

“The digital destination for the Football World Cup, which starts in November is going to be Jio Cinema. While Jio Cinema will post all other sporting properties that Viacom18 has such as NBA, the athletics Diamond League and ATP Tennis, among others, Fifa will be available to all telecom players including Jio, Vodafone, Airtel and their subscribers, across devices like iOS, Android and connected TVs," said Viacom18's sports CEO Anil Jayaraj said, quoted Livemint.

Jayaraj said, “Viacom18 Sports’ multi-platform presentation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be immersive, personalised and offer viewers exclusive experiences on JioCinema.”

“So there is no subscription fees that anybody needs to pay. You can just download the app and start watching football," he added. 

The commentary for FIFA matches will be available to users in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, and Tamil, he said. 

This comes as last month the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the proposed merger of the Jio Cinema OTT app with Viacom18 Media. 

Talking about streaming the football match on Jio Cinema instead of Voot, the broadcaster’s entertainment streaming platform, Jayaraj said, “It’s (Jio Cinema) got lifetime downloads of some 400 million. So, it’s actually quite massive. We believe that bringing up some of the marquee content that we have, including FIFA, gives the sporting viewers a unique opportunity to watch it," quoted Livemint.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup was telecast in India by Sony.