MUMBAI: Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom venture of Reliance Industries, could offer free content from the bouquet of television channels under the Network18 group to those who sign up for its data service, people familiar with the matter said. Reliance Industries is in the process of taking over Network18 Media and Investments, including its unit TV18 Broadcast, spending about Rs 4,000 crore.Reliance Jio is expected to launch telecom services by November and is in the process of tying up infrastructure arrangements. When that happens, subscribers to Reliance Jio’s fourth-generation services may have to only pay for their data connection while accessing the TV content free, giving it a pricing edge over rivals whose subscribers would need pay for similar content, one of the people said.While announcing the Network 18 transaction on Thursday, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries said the acquisition would "differentiate Reliance’s 4G business by providing a unique amalgamation at the intersect of telecom, Web and digital commerce via a suite of premier digital properties". It didn’t provide details of the plan. Reliance Jio didn’t respond to emailed queries.Network18’s news channels — CNBC-TV18, CNN-IBN and IBN 7 — and entertainment channel Colors are the key properties that users are likely to get a free access to as long as they have a Reliance Jio data connection, another person said."Network18 has well-penetrated channels that have immediate-onthe-move consumption, especially in metro cities and rural areas," this person said, indicating that metros where people spend a lot of time traveling, and in rural areas where media penetration is low, Reliance Jio sees a ready set of consumers for the 4G TV offering.Reliance Jio is the only company with airwaves to offer 4G highspeed data and voice services in every part of the country. It recently bought spectrum in the 1800 MHz band — airwaves which have a globally developed 4G ecosystem around it — adding to its holding in 2300 MHz band.According to a telecom department official, Reliance Jio was recently also granted a provisional approval to set up international Internet gateways at Mumbai and Chennai. The final approval for these would come after the telecom department is able to test the Internet monitoring systems for the gateways.The person who spoke of the company’s plans said Reliance Jio could also exploit synergies between Homeshop18, Network18’s online and on-TV retail venture, and the mobile platform to extend the service on mobile phones.According to industry experts, with voice revenue tapering off and telecom operators striving to find a suitable model to offset the fall in voice growth through data services, Reliance Jio, despite being a new kid on the block, might have a head start because of the content it now owns.With Network18 in its kitty, Reliance Jio could see intra-industry convergence between platforms — telecom, media and technology — and also inter-industry convergence. Retail and the Web are converging in a big way, and the combination of the various platforms could provide the group with an endto-end gamut of consumer services."The acquisition emphasises the global trend of convergence. On the new networks, content will drive business and in data, video will be a big part," said Hemant Joshi, partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells. The sheer quantum and the variety of content will drive the growth of data business in future, Joshi said.BK Syngal, a telecom analyst and former chairman of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the international telephony provider taken over by the Tata group from the government, said operators must ready content before they can successfully register high rates of data growth."As convergence comes, content will be needed to fill the bandwidth. So, it is better to own your content if you can produce good quality. It even allows you to do some of your own messaging," he said. "So why give money to someone else if you can own it?"Anandita Singh Mankotia in New Delhi contributed to the article.