Manchester City today announced a new regional partnership with Jio. As a part of the deal, Jio will be the club’s official Mobile Communications Network Partner in India. The partnership was enabled and supported by RISE Worldwide, a Reliance initiative, India’s largest sports and entertainment company.
Through this partnership, Man City and Jio will collaborate on a variety of engaging experiences that fans will be able to access through Jio’s digital ecosystem comprising JioTV, MyJio, Jio STB, JioEngage and other applications and platforms, in addition to exclusive giveaways and in-market activities.
As part of the new agreement, Man City’s OTT platform CITY+ will be integrated into the JioTV platform providing fans in India further access to exclusive club content including match highlights, live Manchester City Women’s team and Elite Development Squad fixtures, match day content and City Studios documentaries.
JioTV already offers over 900 channels in 16 languages across 12
genres, and has over 350 million downloads.
In addition to the Jio brand featuring across the club’s in-stadia and digital assets, as part of the new deal Jio’s associate brands, RISE and Viacom18 will also leverage several partnership rights across their football and sports offerings.
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairman of Manchester City, is also the CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, which had invested $1.2 billion or Rs. 9,093.60 crore in Jio Platforms in 2020.
Commenting on the partnership, Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jio Platforms Limited), said:
We are excited to announce Jio’s exclusive partnership with Manchester
City in India, through which we will present City fans with experiences through a multitude of digitally powered immersive initiatives. We believe both brands share similar values of bringing transformational impact to their communities and through this partnership, we endeavour to bring the
best of football to the sports communities and Man City fans in India.
Ferran Soriano, Chief Executive Officer, City Football Group, said:
We’re pleased to welcome Jio as an Official Partner of Manchester City today. The Club has a passionate and growing fanbase in India, and we are continually exploring new ways to provide greater fan experiences for our followers in the region and around the globe, particularly within the digital and technology space. We look forward to working with Jio as we develop these opportunities throughout the partnership.