If reports are to go by, the US streaming giant - Netflix - is in discussion for a multi-year partnership with Viacom 18 for creating new regional content. Viacom 18 is a joint venture controlled by Network 18 - a subsidiary of billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries. 

However, the deal is not an exclusive one. Viacom18 licences content to several platforms, including Amazon, and will continue to create shows for other platforms, even if the deal with Netflix happens. Network 18, which also constitutes IBNlive.com, Moneycontrol.com, Firstpost.com, Homeshop 18, and Viacom 18, will produce shows for Netflix, targeting the content for the Indian audience. 

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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in December the company planned to invest nearly $400 million during 2019 and 2020 to develop content for Indian viewers. Last year, Netflix had planned to launch 22 original movies and 11 series from India by 2020. For the unversed, in December 2019, Netflix had also partnered with Tipping Point, the digital content arm of Viacom18 Studios, to source three original series Jamtara, She, and Taj Mahal 1989. Besides this, the streaming giant has also partnered with Karan Johar's Dharma Productions’ digital content company 'Dharmatic Entertainment'. Under this partnership, the two will create a broad range of new fiction and non-fiction series and films exclusively for Netflix subscribers. A week back, the OTT platform also announced the release of Janhvi Kapoor’s Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, exclusively as a Netflix Film, in 190 countries. 

As per reports in Reuters, 'while a content deal would boost Netflix’s offerings, it would also aid Network18 whose revenue has been hit as businesses cut back on advertising and other spending during the coronavirus lockdown, said one of the sources, adding, “It makes huge sense (for both companies).'

(Source: Reuters)