JioStar Q2 results: Revenue sinks, but hit Hindi TV series reboot saves quarter

JioStar, the media and entertainment arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, saw its revenue plunge in the September quarter from the preceding three months, mirroring the declining valuation of the Indian Premier League for which it holds broadcasting rights.

Net profit, however, surged, propped up by other sports and digital properties, led by the reboot of the popular Hindi television series ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’.

JioStar’s second-quarter revenue fell 35% quarter-on-quarter to ₹7,232 crore while its profit rose 56% to ₹1,322 crore.

During the July-September quarter, JioStar reached more than 830 million viewers, delivering over 60 billion hours of watch time on television, the company said on Friday. Its video-streaming platform, JioHotstar, averaged 400 million monthly active users during the quarter, it added.

The valuation of IPL, India’s most-widely watched sports tournament, has declined 8% to ₹76,100 crore this year, according to a recent report by consulting firm D&P Advisory. The cricket tournament had reached a peak valuation of ₹92,500 in 2023.

The valuation of the Women’s Premier League had dropped 5.6% to ₹1,275 crore, according to the report.

Digital subscriptions continued to grow strongly, supported by shows such as Special Ops2, Sarzameen, and Heart Beat 2, JioStar said in a statement.

Beyond IPL and Big Boss

In February last year, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and The Walt Disney Co. formed a joint venture combining the businesses of Reliance’s associate company, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd, and Disney’s Star India.

JioHotstar, the video-streaming platform created by merging Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema, has crossed 100 million paid subscribers, the company said earlier this year.

The combined Reliance-Disney streaming entity is three–to—four times bigger than the likes of Netflix in terms of total hours of programming, but needs more than IPL and hits such as Bigg Boss to ace the crowded subscription video-on-demand market, industry experts said.

“The combination of JioCinema and Hotstar has created a powerful platform, poised to accelerate the expansion of India’s premium VoD market,” Mihir Shah, vice president, Media Partners Asia, an independent research and consulting firm, said in an earlier interview to Mint. But “success will depend on their ability to innovate with diverse content forms, leverage interactive features to deepen viewer engagement, and deliver a consistently high-quality experience across a large user base”.

JioStar said its Bigg Boss programmes across Hindi, Malayalam, and Telugu had registered a 55% year-on-year growth in watch-time.