Reliance announces JioTV OS with Hello Jio AI Assistant, JioTV+ and more

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) held its 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday. During the conference, RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani addressed the company’s stakeholders. Ambani spoke about the company’s progress in 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence, growth of its telecom subsidiary Jio and more. Reliance also made a slew of announcements at the conference, including a new Jio TV OS and several AI-powered services.

Important announcements made at the RIL AGM

Ambani explained that Reliance invested heavily in deep tech with three distinct strategies. First, the company integrated new technologies across its businesses to keep pace with developments and improve operational efficiency. Second, the company focused on incubating critical technological innovations in-house to improve its products and reduce its dependence on outside firms.

“Thirdly, we have built an AI-native digital infrastructure across Reliance businesses and built our software stack, integrating end-to-end workflows and real-time dashboards,” Ambani added. He also asserted that with its deep-tech integration, RIL can become one of the top 30 companies in the world in the near future.

5G and JioAirFiber

Focusing on Jio, Ambani said the telecom subsidiary has acquired over 350 patents in 5G and 6G technologies. He also claimed that over 85 percent of the 5G radio cells operating in India belonged to Jio. The company has also upgraded over 130 million customers to its True 5G networks.

The company’s JioAirFiber, its 5G-based home broadband service launched last year, is said to have acquired a million customers. The company now plans to expand the service to over 100 million households, 20 million small and medium businesses (SMBs), 1.5 million schools and colleges and over 70,000 hospitals.

JioBrain

Ambani also introduced JioBrain, the company’s AI-powered platform that integrates low latency 5G and machine learning (ML) capabilities to build new tools and products. RIL is now integrating JioBrain-powered AI technologies into its processes and offerings, creating end-to-end workflows.

Jio AI Cloud Welcome Bonus

During the RIL AGM 2024, Ambani also introduced the ‘Jio AI-Cloud Welcome Offer’. With this offer, Jio users will get up to 100GB of free cloud storage. The Welcome Offer will be launched during Diwali this year.

JioTV+

Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), introduced new offerings for JioTV+. The subscription service offers access to over 860 live TV channels in HD resolution and content from over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar. Ambani added that the platform has a “super-fast channel switching experience”.

Interestingly, JioTV+ allows users to access various OTT apps with a single login. However, the company did not specify whether users will have to log in to the apps within JioTV+ separately.

The JioTV+ also has a recommendation engine that can make personalized suggestions based on the user’s viewing habits. There is also a new feature called Catch-Up TV that allows users to watch a show live on TV even after it has aired. The feature can go back up to seven days.

JioTV OS and Hello Jio

A new operating system for the Jio Set-Top Box called JioTV OS was unveiled during the AGM. Ambani said that the new OS will offer a faster, smoother and more personalized experience. It will support ultra-HD 4K video resolution, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The RJIL chairman also said that the OS will also offer a common interface for various apps, live TV and shows.

Jio is also introducing upgrades to Hello Jio, the voice assistant for its TV operating system. By pressing the microphone button on the Jio remote, users can use Hello Jio. Now, the company is integrating generative AI into the system to enable natural language understanding.

Ambani says this will make finding content on JioSTB easier than before, as users can make vague requests and the voice assistant will still be able to comply. Further, the tool can search for content across different OTT platforms and show one combined list.

The voice assistant can also be activated with commands such as ‘Open Netflix’ or by using the name of a specific movie, show or music. It can also control JioSTB functions such as volume and more.

Another new introduction to JioTV OS is the Jio App Store. Ambani said that a large developer ecosystem is building new and innovative apps for Jio Home. The platform has a growing catalogue of apps that cater to topics like exercise-based fitness, educational content for kids, shopping and more. All these apps can be accessed via the JioSTB.

JioHome App

Jio also launched a new JioHome app, which integrates the company’s Internet-of-things (IoT) solutions with JioTV OS. The app acts as a personal control center for all IoT functions and allows users to manage various devices including Wi-Fi, smart appliances and more with a few taps. It also includes features such as malware detection and guest Wi-Fi management.

JioPhoneCall-AI

Another major announcement at the RIL AGM was the JioPhoneCall AI. With this service, users will get access to AI features on every call. It can record and store phone calls on Jio Cloud and automatically transcribe them using an in-house algorithm. It can also summarize and translate the call into different languages. Ambani said that this will make phone calls searchable and shareable.

Jio users will get a dedicated phone number for PhoneCall AI. Users can add the number to their call (like a conference call). Once this is done, a welcome message will be played. After that, users can press “#1” to start recording and transcribing the call. The AI ​​will also make occasional announcements that the call is being recorded. Users can pause the transcription by pressing #2. To resume, users can press #1. Once the user wants to stop the transcription and recording, they can press #3.

JioCinema

Ambani also spoke about the growth of JioCinema, Jio’s own OTT platform. He claimed that the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was watched by a total of 62 crore users in India, which is a 38 percent increase over the previous seasons. He also added that JioCinema registered 15 million paying subscribers in just 100 days. Currently, the platform features original shows, as well as curated reality shows, films and content from HBO, Paramount and NBCU.