Lionsgate has bought its streaming service, Lionsgate Play, in India and Southeast Asia to Rohit Jain, the platform’s former president for India and Asia’s rising markets, the corporate introduced in a press launch. Whereas the official announcement didn’t disclose the dimensions of the deal, media reviews point out that the estimated worth may very well be round $30 million.
Lionsgate Play operates a standalone subscription-based streaming service beginning at Rs. 399 for 3 months and can be obtainable as an add-on channel on Amazon Prime Video. Moreover, it’s bundled with choose web plans provided by Airtel Xstream and JioHome. Lionsgate Play licenses movies and tv reveals from a number of studios and networks, together with twentieth Century Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, Starz, Common, and Warner Bros.
What’s the Deal:
Below the transaction, Jain will exit Lionsgate as a part of the deal, taking full management and possession of the Lionsgate Play streaming platform. Nonetheless, Lionsgate will proceed to retain all its different movie and tv companies in India and Southeast Asia. Moreover, it’s going to proceed to license the Lionsgate Play model to the platform beneath an unspecified multi-year settlement and also will license movies and tv sequence from its content material library.
With out disclosing the monetary particulars of the deal, a spokesperson representing Lionsgate clarified that the US-based manufacturing studio bought solely its streaming service, enabling it to function independently beneath the “founder-led possession” of Jain, whereas nonetheless sustaining entry to Lionsgate’s content material by way of licensing agreements between the 2 firms.
Earlier, in Could 2025, Lionsgate Leisure cut up its Studios and Starz companies into two standalone public firms. Starz Leisure is the corporate’s tv division, whereas Lionsgate Studios focuses on the manufacturing and distribution of movie and tv content material.
Aggregator-led OTT Enterprise:
Because the over-the-top (OTT) market fragments throughout a number of platforms and platform-exclusive content material libraries increase, accessing particular content material is turning into more and more tough and costly. This development can be contributing to the rise of piracy, an unlawful methodology of accessing copyrighted and licensed content material.
This shift is critical as a result of OTT aggregators purpose to turn into go-to platforms the place a number of particular person streaming providers can coexist inside platform-led ecosystems, providing customers broader entry beneath a single subscription. Whereas Amazon Prime Video affords a number of standalone streaming providers as add-ons, Airtel Xstream and JioHotstar present bundled OTT streaming packages alongside web or broadband plans. Equally, Hindustan Occasions Media-owned OTTPlay aggregates content material from a number of OTT platforms.
Apparently, Lionsgate Play is accessible on all 4 of the above-mentioned platforms, signalling a heavy dependence on aggregate-based OTT platforms quite than on its standalone service. Nonetheless, the aggregate-based content material distribution mannequin carries its personal dangers, significantly if customers start to rely solely on a number of mainstream OTT providers.
For example, 2024 monetary disclosures spotlight this pressure. HT Media reported an working EBITDA (earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) lack of Rs. 40 crore in its digital enterprise in its newest outcomes, attributing the decline largely to investments in its streaming aggregation service, OTTPlay.
Current Media Offers:
The worldwide streaming trade is quickly evolving amid an intensifying content material distribution conflict. Just lately, Netflix introduced plans to accumulate Warner Bros., together with its movie and tv studios, in addition to HBO and HBO Max, that are at present obtainable on JioHotstar’s library.
Difficult this deal, valued at practically $82.7 billion, Paramount, together with Skydance, moved individually to bid for Warner Bros. by making a direct provide to shareholders. Nonetheless, Warner Bros. rejected this proposal, preferring Netflix’s provide.
Escalating the dispute, Paramount challenged Warner Bros.’ bidding course of legally by submitting a lawsuit in opposition to Warner Bros. Discovery, signalling its intent to contest Netflix’s acquisition.
Individually, Disney’s Indian tv and streaming enterprise, together with Disney+ Hotstar and tv channels beneath Star India, merged with Reliance’s Viacom18 and JioCinema to kind a big media and streaming conglomerate, known as JioStar. These providers have been unified beneath JioHotstar in February 2025, making it considered one of India’s largest leisure companies throughout OTT and tv.
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