It’s a well-known fact that OTT platform Jio Cinema has been aggressively reinventing its content portfolio: right from streaming the massively popular IPL 2023 cricket tournament for free to acquiring the premium HBO titles like ‘Succession’ and ‘House of the Dragon’, and later Peacock’s global content, etc. Now, let’s see how many of the titles which streamed during the month of September clicked with the audience.
We have compiled a list of the popular (mostly Indian) titles which were released on Jio Cinema in September along with their ‘Hit’, ‘Semi-Hit’, ‘Miss’ or ‘Super-Hit’ status. ‘Hit’ implies good title acquisition (based on popularity and/or critical reception), ‘Miss’ signifies a not-so-good title acquisition, ‘Semi-Hit’ signifies a not-too-bad / not-too-good title acquisition, and ‘Super-Hit’ implies a highly successful title acquisition by Jio Cinema (one bonus ‘Hit’ point given for ‘Super-Hit’ titles with total no. of titles remaining as per actual and half hit point given to ‘Semi-Hit’ titles).
Birha: The Journey Back Home (Film, Licensed) – Semi Hit
The Comedian (Film, Licensed) – Semi Hit
A Winter Tale At Shimla (Film, Licensed) – Miss
Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan Season-5 (Web Series) – Semi Hit
India Vs Australia ODI Series (Sports) – Super Hit
MotoGP 2023 (Sports) – Semi Hit
Licensed Films
In the month of September, Jio Cinema started showcasing some short films as part of the Jio Cinema Film Festival, which will continue until 18th October. In this month, two short films namely ‘Birha: The Journey Back Home’ and ‘The Comedian’ were released. Both films apparently have found their target viewers, those who are fond of watching short films, but the films couldn’t create a lot of buzz for understandable reasons.
Besides, another film titled ‘A Winter Tale At Shimla’ was also released on the OTT platform during the month. However, it didn’t attract a lot of viewers and the title went mostly unnoticed by OTT viewers. Other than that, no major Indian licensed film title was released on the Jio Cinema OTT platform.
Web Series
On the web series front, the month of September for Jio Cinema had just one series ‘Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan Season-5’ which was released on the OTT platform. The show found some takers among those viewers who have seen the show’s first four seasons. So, it was a semi-hit for Jio Cinema.
Direct-to-OTT Films / Sports / Others
As mentioned above, in the month September 2023, Jio Cinema didn’t have any major direct-to-OTT film which was released on its OTT platform.
However, the fourteenth round of the 2023 MotoGP season, which took place in Motegi (Japan), started streaming on the OTT platform at the end of the month. But since MotoGP racing has a limited number of fanbase in India, the event wasn’t a big hit for the OTT platform.
But one event which turned out to be a Super-Hit for Jio Cinema in September was the India Vs Australia three-match ODI series. The matches were held in India on 22nd, 24th, and 27th September and the series was won by the Indian cricket team. Cricket has such a massive following among Indians, so the event attracted a significant number of viewers on OTT.
So, overall, there were four ‘Semi-Hits’, one ‘Miss’, and one ‘Super-Hit’ title for Jio Cinema for the month of September 2023. The main highlight for the month of September was the India Vs Australia cricket series, which, in a way, saved the day for the OTT giant.
Jio Cinema September 2023 Success Score = 67% = 67/100