Reliance Industries yesterday said that its media business delivered one of the strongest performances, setting new operating and revenue

benchmarks across verticals.

In an official statement, RIL, which announced its Q4 and full year financial results,  said the media business’ operating revenue for the year stood at Rs. 297 crore, up by 49.4 percent Y-o-Y, driven by strong growth across all segments.

TV network share increased by 70 bps Q-o-Q to 11.4 percent, driven by the strong performance of Hindi GEC, Movie and Sports portfolio. Colors achieved its highest GRPs in the last 8 years and highest market share in the last 12 years, briefly climbing to the #1 position during the quarter.

IPL 2024 began with a big bang on JioCinema, registering 50 percent+ increase in reach on the opening day of the season with 11.3 crore viewers.

The platform continued its programming innovations to enable higher reach for the event. After introducing commentary in Bhojpuri last year, Haryanvi was added to the list of 12 languages this year, giving the consumers of regional languages unprecedented choice, RIL said.

Consumers were also given two new options for choosing camera angles – ‘Hero Cam’ (to follow their favourite players) and ‘Multi-View’ (to view action from all the camera angles simultaneously). Shows like ‘Legends Lounge’, ‘What Just Happened’, and ‘How It Started, How It’s Going’ helped build engagement on the platform.

On February 28, 2024, Reliance, Viacom18 and The Walt Disney Company announced the signing of binding definitive agreements to form a joint venture that will combine the businesses of Viacom18 and Star India.

In addition, RIL will invest Rs. 11,500 crore at closing for the JV’s growth strategy, valuing the JV at Rs. 70,352 crore (US$ 8.5 billion) on a post-money basis, excluding synergies. The JV will seek to lead the digital transformation of the media and entertainment industry in India and offer consumers high-quality and comprehensive content offerings anytime and anywhere.

With the addition of Disney’s acclaimed films and shows to Viacom18’s renowned productions and sports offerings, the JV will offer a compelling, accessible, and novel digital-focused entertainment experience to people in India and the Indian diaspora globally. The JV will be controlled by RIL and owned 16.34 percent by RIL, 46.82 percent by Viacom18 and 36.84 percent by Disney.

News business revenue was up 19 percent Y-o-Y, Viacom18 revenue was up 62 percent Y-o-Y. Sports was the biggest driver of revenue growth for Viacom18, while news revenue growth was driven by both TV network and digital platforms.

Digital platforms, both news and entertainment, brought strong growth for JioCinema, Moneycontrol and News18 platforms, RIL said in a statement. The increased investments had an impact on EBITDA for the year.