NBCUniversal has, as expected, announced a major licensing deal with Viacom18/JioCinema from June, reinforcing the platform’s ambitions to dominate India’s streaming market.

NBCU said in its announcement that the thousands of hours involved in the agreement include first-run rights to new shows such as Peacock original series "Young Rock" with Dwayne Johnson; along with action thriller "The Lazarus Project" and romantic comedy "The Lovers". 

NBCU titles from, among others, Universal Television, Universal International Studios and DreamWorks Animation, will be presented in a Peacock-branded hub on the JioCinema Premium SVOD tier.

Movies headed to JioCinema include DreamWorks Animation’s "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish", and sci-fi horror film "M3GAN", along with "Jurassic", "Bourne", "Shrek", "The Mummy" and "Pitch Perfect" franchises. 

Library titles include "Downton Abbey", "Suits", "The Office", "Parks and Recreation" and "The Mindy Project", as well as reality shows such as "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills", "Vanderpump Rules", "Family Karma" and "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning".

The NBCU agreement comes a month after Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) announced a multi-year content agreement that makes JioCinema India’s new streaming home of HBO, Max Original and Warner Bros content.

The deal potentially gives WBD its biggest-ever audience in India (outside claimed reach for Discovery channels) and saves WBD from having to wage a brutal war of its own with Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+ for a share of India’s direct-to-consumer/subscription revenues.

Industry expectations during the WBD announcement at end April were that Paramount and NBCUniversal would also board JioCinema’s platform.