JioStar, the Indian media giant backed by Reliance Industries, grew revenue from operations 10.1% year-on-year to INR68.1 billion ($710 million) in the July–September quarter despite a weak advertising market. Profit after tax fell 13.2% to INR11.5 billion ($120 million). Former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly hosted the first-ever “Bigg Boss Bangla,” which launched this quarter on streaming service JioHotstar.
The reality franchise rolled out in six languages, and all editions together pulled in more than 90 million viewers in their first three weeks. That makes “Bigg Boss” the biggest entertainment property on the platform. Reliance Industries credited JioStar’s revenue growth to subscriptions and to advertising on digital entertainment.
Gross revenue rose 9.8% to INR79.4 billion ($829 million). Margins came under pressure. EBITDA from operations dropped 10.5% to INR13.7 billion ($143 million), and the margin fell to 22.1% from 28.1% a year earlier.
A 36.6% drop in investment income pulled total EBITDA down 13.6% to INR15 billion ($157 million). The quarter was also well below April–June, when JioStar booked INR109.5 billion ($1.1 billion) in revenue from operations. JioHotstar averaged about 440 million monthly active users over the three months, up 10% on the prior year.
In September, the platform relaunched under the JioHotstar name in the U.K., Canada and Singapore. Reliance said active subscribers in those three territories have grown about 30% since then. The company also introduced “Pay Kisi Aur Se” (“Ask Others to Pay”), which lets users send a subscription payment request to a friend or relative.
Reliance said the feature raised payment initiations by 10%. Subscribers on mobile plans now get up to two hours a month of viewing on connected TVs. The average JioHotstar viewer on a connected TV watches three times as much as one on a phone.
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