MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS → BUSINESS OVERVIEW

Media and Entertainment

Reliance has significantly advanced its Media and Entertainment (M&E) ambitions with JioStar, India’s largest media platform, created by the merger of Viacom18 and Star India, during the past year. It brought together iconic brands across entertainment and sports, including Colors, Star Plus, Star Gold, and Star Sports, as well as integrated JioCinema and Disney+Hotstar into a unified super streaming service, JioHotstar. The News business restructuring was also completed with the merger of Network18 and TV18, creating India’s biggest omni-channel news media powerhouse.

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Jio Studios films ranked among the year’s top 5 Hindi hits

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IPL 2025 viewership on JioHotstar, highest ever

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People

Strategic Objective
Our goal is to be the leading provider of content and unparalleled entertainment experiences across diverse genres, regions, and languages, reaching audiences on their preferred platforms.

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Industry leading TV viewership share across Entertainment genres

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Pay subscriber base of JioHotstar during IPL Season 18, second highest globally

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Peak MAUs of JioHotstar in March’25

#1

TV News network in India with leadership in national and regional markets

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Moneycontrol is India’s No. 1 business and markets news, data & analytics destination with entertainment-class engagement metrics

Industry Overview

Indian Media and Entertainment sector grew 3.3% Y-o-Y in 2024 to reach ` 2.5 trillion. Video continued to command the lion’s share of revenues and drove content consumption across platforms.

Digital continues to drive growth in M&E Sector
Digital segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.2% over 2024-27, reaching ` 1.1 trillion and representing over 50% of the overall ‘big media’ (TV, Digital, Print). With an estimated 945 million broadband subscribers, led by mobile, and around 70% of time spent on small-screens going towards media consumption, online video is expected to drive long-term growth of the media segment.

Connected TVs to Lead Growth in Television Segment
India is estimated to have crossed 50 million Connected TVs by end of 2024. With the engagement levels on big screens higher than small screens, CTVs offer the best features of traditional and digital ecosystems, providing an opportunity for brands to reach premium audiences in an intelligent fashion on the big screens.

Sports is a key catalyst for digital adoption
Live Sports has a broad demographic appeal and a unique ability to engage millions of viewers concurrently with high engagement levels, ensuring a consistent flow of traffic. With platforms innovating to bring in more audience and adding new features to increase engagement, sports is expected to be a key driver for digital segment growth.

Source: EY-FICCI M&E Report March 2025

Business Performance

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

(` Crore) FY
2024-25*		 FY
2023-24		 Y-o-Y
Change
Value of sales and services 20,696 11,875 74.3%
Revenue from operations 17,762 10,157 74.9%
EBITDA 1,833 765 139.6%
EBITDA margin** 10.3% 7.5% 280 bps

*Includes Jio Star for the period November 14, 2024 - March 31, 2025
** EBITDA margin is calculated on Revenue from operations

TV Entertainment
JioStar reinforced its leadership in the Indian television landscape by delivering an unmatched content slate across genres and languages.

In the Hindi GEC segment, 9 out of the top 10 shows belonged to JioStar; Star Plus remained the undisputed leader with a 27% market share.

The regional portfolio delivered exceptional performance, with Star Pravah dominating Marathi GEC with a 50% market share. In Bangla, Star Jalsha strengthened its leadership, increasing its market share from 43% to 47%, with 6 of the top 10 shows.

Asianet continued its supremacy in Malayalam GEC with a 42% market share and the top 9 shows of the genre, while Star Maa led Telugu GEC with 39% market share. In Tamil too, Star Vijay emerged as a leader with 32% market share and 5 of the top 10 shows.

JioStar’s Kids, English, and Youth portfolios retained their #1 position in their respective segments.

Source: BARC - Respective genre TGs

Digital Success
With over 280 million subscribers during IPL Season 18, JioHotstar continues to make high-quality content more accessible than ever.

The Champions Trophy 2025 was a defining moment, delivering peak concurrency of 61.2 million viewers, surpassing previous benchmarks. IPL viewership (reach) hit an all-time high of 652 million as multiple viewer centric innovations drove higher engagement.

Beyond sports, JioHotstar is transforming how audiences experience culture and entertainment through immersive live streaming. Mahashivratri: The Divine Night amassed 39 million views, and the Coldplay Music of the Spheres concert, streamed exclusively on JioHotstar, garnered 8.3 million views.

JioHotstar also introduced ‘Sparks’, a flagship initiative spotlighting India’s biggest digital creators through engaging formats. With an unparalleled mix of sports, movies, originals, and live events, JioHotstar remains the ultimate destination for digital entertainment.

News Business
Network18’s TV News portfolio is now the #1 ranked news network in the country as it garnered a record-high viewership share. It made significant gains in key regional markets like Marathi (#1), Bengali (#1), and Kannada (#2), strengthening its pan-India position. The network fortified its leadership positions in the national markets – Hindi (News18 India), English (CNN News18) and English Business News (CNBC TV18). Network18’s digital news portfolio also exited the year as the #1 online news publisher with a clear leadership in financial news segment where Moneycontrol has consistently maintained the numero uno status, both in terms of reach as well as engagement. Moneycontrol Pro crossed a significant milestone of 1 million paid subscribers, establishing its position as India’s most subscribed digital news platform. Moneycontrol’s fintech business gathered steam as it saw a strong traction for its lending offering. Firstpost continued to build a loyal audience on YouTube, as India’s top global news destination, crossing 7 million subscribers with 70% growth during the year.

SCOT Analysis

S
STRENGTHS
  • Reliance is India’s largest media conglomerate comprising JioStar, Network18, Jio Studios, and other investments, with leadership positions in most segments.
  • With a portfolio of 20 News and 100+ Entertainment & Sports TV channels, India’s largest digital entertainment and digital news platforms, RIL operates at an unprecedented platform scale.
  • JioStar has secured the biggest sports rights while also pioneering interactive sports viewing on JioHotstar.
C
CHALLENGES
  • Intense competition continues to push up content costs. Viewership fragmentation necessitates platform-agnostic content strategies.
  • India’s ad market remains sensitive to broader economic shifts. Building a resilient business model is crucial to mitigate these risks.
  • Despite improvements in digital rights management, content piracy persists as a challenge.
O
OPPORTUNITIES
  • Newer formats like micro dramas (mobile-first short form story telling) and more, are unlocking fresh audience engagement models and monetisation opportunities.
  • Localised storytelling in regional languages, hyperlocal news and dubbed versions of global franchises will further drive audience engagement.
  • Beyond sports, JioHotstar is pioneering culture-defining live entertainment experiences that present untapped revenue potential.
T
THREATS
  • Rapid technological advancements may lead to the obsolescence of current content production infrastructure, viewing platforms and may even lead to changes in consumer behaviour.
OUTLOOK

Backed by a diverse content slate across genres and languages, 34% share in TV entertainment, 85%+ in sports viewership and the #1 News network, RIL is uniquely positioned to drive deep viewer engagement and monetisation. With a surge in online video consumption and rapid CTV adoption, JioHotstar is set to lead the next wave of digital growth. Continued investments in entertainment, sports and news, along with innovation in content formats and AI‑driven personalisation, will strengthen RIL’s leadership. The next leg of growth in RIL’s M&E segment will be driven by innovative content formats and newer monetisation capabilities by scaling advertising and subscriptions across platforms through a broader advertiser base, Ad-tech innovation, and compelling subscription offerings.