JioStar Q3 revenue rises on strong subscription and digital ad growth

JioStar, the Reliance-controlled media and entertainment company, reported a higher sequential revenue from operations in the December quarter, driven by strong growth in subscription income across digital platforms and television, and a rise in digital advertising led by the expansion of connected TV as well as new film and web-show launches.

JioStar’s third-quarter revenue rose 11.6% quarter-on-quarter to ₹6,896 crore, while its profit before tax fell 32.2% to ₹898 crore. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda, fell to ₹1,303 crore versus ₹1,738 crore in the previous quarter.

During the October-December quarter, average monthly active users (MAU) on the company’s digital platform JioHotstar stood at 450 million, an increase of 13% quarter-on-quarter and at par with Q1 (April-June 2025), when the IPL (Indian Premier League) was held, the company said.

Entertainment watch time grew by 15% during the same period, driven by the new seasons of reality TV show Bigg Boss (across three languages), strong performance of Hindi and regional launches and sustained growth in TV network content.

“The growth story is: we managed to convert a lot of a consumers from cricket to entertainment and kept them sticky on our platform quarter-on-quarter. Our entertainment watch time grew by 15% over the quarter, driven by the biggest seasons of Bigg Boss and strong performance across our regional and Hindi portfolio, and lastly, a TV network content that continues to deliver big numbers on JioHotstar,” Kevin Vaz, chief executive officer (CEO), entertainment, JioStar said during the earnings call on Friday.

However, the TV entertainment ads market continues to be challenging, due to spending cuts by FMCG and consumer electronic companies, Vaz added.

As far as the overall entertainment pie on linear television goes, viewership share grew 1% year-on-year to 34.6%, while the company’s Hollywood theatrical release Avatar: Fire and Ash grossed ₹200 crore at the box office in 15 days.

Viewership share indicates the percentage of total TV viewing time on linear television that is captured by a broadcaster.

Cricket viewership

Within the sports segment, the Women’s World Cup emerged as the most-watched women’s cricket tournament, JioStar said. The three men’s cricket bilaterals performed well, with average watch time per men’s ODI and T20 match increasing 55% versus the period prior to the Disney Reliance merger. Pro Kabaddi League’s digital watch time grew 120% year-on-year, reinforcing Kabaddi’s position as the most-watched sport after cricket, according to the company.

In February 2024, billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) 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, crossed 300 million paid subscribers, RIL said at the company’s annual general meeting last year. In contrast, according to industry experts, paid subscribers for Amazon Prime Video in India currently stand at 21 million compared to 12-15 million for close rival Netflix.

The combined Reliance-Disney streaming entity 3-4 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, according to industry experts.

In a recent interview with Mint, Kiran Mani, CEO – digital, JioStar, had said that while IPL is a big story to be talked about, the company’s bread and butter is general entertainment. “IPL is the Burj Khalifa of everything that we do, but I genuinely believe our identity is not driven by IPL at all. We are the digital arm to a company which has a hundred television channels. The television content has a rich and sustained audience viewership on the OTT side. Serials like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Anupamaa have defined households and behaviour patterns in India,” he had said.

The combination of JioCinema and Hotstar has created a powerful platform, poised to accelerate the expansion of India’s premium VoD (video-on-demand) 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,” he had pointed out.