JioStar’s quarterly profit drops 53% as ad slowdown, content costs weigh

JioStar, the Reliance-controlled media and entertainment company, reported a sequential decline of almost 53% in net profit. ₹419 crore in the March quarter remained under pressure due to weak advertising revenue, high content costs and ongoing investments in sports.

Operating income for India’s largest media company in the fourth quarter increased by 21.4% compared to the previous quarter ₹Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, fell to 8,372 crore ₹827 crore ₹1,303 crore in the three months to December 2025, JioStar said on Friday.

The company’s television and streaming businesses benefited from the strong performance of Hindi and regional series, OTT originals and T20 Men’s Cricket World Cup, while the two-part theatrical release Dhurandhar performed well at the box office, increasing its value on OTT and television.

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The company said digital subscriptions have seen steady growth from quarter to quarter, with direct-to-consumer subscriptions reaching an all-time high, supported by the launch of new monthly plans to increase affordability and flexibility for users. Average monthly active users (MAU) increased 10% sequentially to 500 million in the March quarter.

The platform, which also recently launched microdramas under the ‘Tadka’ brand, partnered with OpenAI in February to integrate ChatGPT-powered conversational audio discovery (CVD), which allows users to search, discover and discuss content through natural language (text or voice) in multiple languages, covering both on-demand and live sports. Other in-app commerce integrations include in-app food ordering with Swiggy in IPL and ‘Shop the Look’ partnership with NewMe in reality show Splitsvilla.

“We have made key bets, particularly on technology and AI-driven technologies, to ensure that we are competitive in an increasingly technology-driven market,” JioStar sports CEO Ishan Chatterjee said in Friday’s earnings presentation. He added that the platform recorded its highest ever revenue in the T20 World Cup thanks to its strong advertiser depth as well as expansion into multiple categories despite the ban on real money gaming in the previous calendar year. However, TV advertising revenues remained under some pressure due to disruptions, especially on the FMCG side.

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Coming to the sports schedules, this quarter featured the ICC T20 World Cup, Women’s Premier League and India-New Zealand bilateral matches. The company said it reached over 515 million viewers across linear TV and digital in the opening weekend of IPL 2026, which started in late March.

In terms of entertainment programmes, JioStar said its TV entertainment viewing share was 34.2%, reaching over 810 million viewers across the country. While Hindi-speaking markets (HSM) are dominated by shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Laughter Chefs Season Three, Star Utsav successfully re-entered the free-to-air (FTA) segment on April 25. In the regional language market, Star Pravah (Marathi), Star Jalsha (Bengali), Star Maa (Telugu) and Asianet (Malayalam) rank first among entertainment channels. go.

The company called The 50 (season one) the second biggest reality show ever on JioHotstar, while another OTT original Chiraiya also ranked among the five most-watched limited episode series of the year. Coming to regional movies and specials, Prabhas starrer ‘Raja Saab’ became the most watched South movie on JioHotstar, while Vijay Sethupathi starrer ‘Muthu Alias Kaattaan’ became the biggest South Special launch to date.

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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 partner company Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd and Disney’s Star India.

JioHotstar, the video streaming platform created by the merger of Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema, has reached 300 million paid subscribers, RIL said. On the other hand, according to industry experts, the number of paid subscribers of Amazon Prime Video in India is currently 21 million, while its close rival Netflix’s number is 12-15 million.

The combination of JioCinema and Hotstar creates a powerful platform that is ready to accelerate the expansion of India’s premium VoD (video on demand) market, Mihir Shah, vice president of Media Partners Asia, an independent research and advisory firm, told Mint in an earlier interview. But “success will depend on their ability to innovate with diverse content formats, leverage interactive features to deepen audience engagement, and deliver a consistently high-quality experience to a broad user base,” he noted.