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India’s dominant media platform JioStar generated revenue from operations of INR10,946 crore ($1.14 billion) in the three months ended June 30, 2026 – a 14% year-on-year increase driven by subscription growth and a surge
in digital advertising.
Operating EBITDA rose 30.7% to INR933 crore ($96.8 million), with the company pointing to operating leverage on the back of robust top-line performance.
JioHotstar, the group’s streaming platform, averaged 530 million monthly active users during the quarter – its highest-ever figure and a 15% gain year-on-year. Entertainment watch time on the service grew 16% over the same period. The quarter’s biggest audience event, the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament, reached a combined 1.2 billion viewers across digital and linear television, with 700 million of those coming through digital alone, making it the most-watched T20 tournament on record.
On linear TV, the JioStar network held a 34% share of total viewership – reaching more than 810 million viewers across India, per BARC data. In Hindi-speaking markets, the network’s pay-TV share climbed to 44%. Star Plus placed five shows among the top 10 Hindi general entertainment titles for the quarter, while “Laughter Chefs Season 3” held the number-one slot in non-fiction. Star Utsav maintained its lead in the free-to-air segment following its entry on DD FreeDish in April 2025, and the company’s regional stable – Star Pravah, Star Jalsha, Star Maa, Star Vijay, Asianet and Colors Gujarati – each retained top-ranked status in their respective markets. JioStar also reported a 47% viewership share in kids’ TV, placing it first in that category.
On the digital product front, Tadka, JioStar’s short-form content hub, crossed 100 million active users within two months of launch, with daily watch-time per viewer rising fivefold since the feature went live. A conversational discovery tool built with ChatGPT is live on the platform, with user engagement rising every month since introduction. A commerce integration with Swiggy, enabling in-app food ordering during live streams, debuted during IPL matches; half of those orders originated from Tier-II cities and beyond. The company’s first AI-generated microdrama, “Game on: 4,000 crore Empire,” produced via its in-house JAMS platform, is also now live.
In sports, regional-language watch time on digital during IPL rose 33% year-on-year. JioStar deployed multilingual voice search via its OpenAI partnership and the Swiggy in-app ordering feature during live IPL matches, giving brand partners a commerce-linked environment around live sport. The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 generated sponsorship traction in the quarter, drawing partners from consumer electronics, AI and wellness categories.
Among originals, “Thukra Ke Mera Pyaar” Season 2 and “Inspector Avinash” Season 2 recorded season-on-season viewership growth of 50% and 65% respectively. “Pritam and Pedro” opened to record viewership, making it the number-one Hindi special of 2026. The live premiere of “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” on JioHotstar drew notable engagement, with one in four viewers participating in live chat, memes or trivia, and one in five interacting with commerce features during the broadcast.
The Q1 results follow a full fiscal year in which Reliance’s media operations – spanning JioStar, JioHotstar, Jio Studios and Network18 – posted INR34,917 crore ($3.7 billion) in annual revenue, as disclosed by chair Mukesh Ambani at the company’s annual general meeting in June.
