Reliance Industries’ media and entertainment revenue up 49%; rakes in Rs 10,826 crore in FY24

The company views rising costs and fragmented viewership as a major challenge for growth.

Reliance Industries earned a revenue of Rs 10,826 crore from its media and entertainment business in FY24, according to its annual report. This is a 49% increase from last year, when it earned Rs 7,266 crore. 

The company views rising costs and fragmented viewership as a major challenge for growth.

“Intense competition has not only led to escalation in content costs, especially for sports and movie rights, it has also led to viewership fragmentation,” the report states.

Among the other challenges are macro-economic linkages and piracy. “India’s ad market is inherently linked to macroeconomic growth, necessitating creation of a robust business model insulated from fluctuations in the economy. Despite content piracy seeing a significant decline, it remains a critical challenge in generating commensurate return on investments,” it states.

The report mentions that its digital news portfolio has a monthly reach of 227 Million, as per Comscore MMX report. Its television network has a viewership share of 12.7% (Including Associate ETV). Its OTT platform JioCinema has an average monthly reach of 225 Million, as per data.ai.

“Reliance has taken big strides in scaling-up the media and entertainment vertical in the last year. From initiating the merger of TV18 and E18 (Moneycontrol) with Network18, to onboarding a strategic investor in Viacom18, to announcing partnership with Disney, all these initiatives will not only help to capture the growth opportunities presented by India’s rapidly growing media landscape but also to shape its evolution,” the company said in the report.

During the year, the company entered into an agreement with The Walt Disney Company for creating a joint venture which combines the businesses of Viacom 18 and Star India. The resultant JV will be one of the largest Indian M&E companies, bringing together iconic media assets across entertainment (e.g. Colors, StarPlus, StarGOLD) and sports (e.g. Star Sports and Sports18) as well as access to highly anticipated events across television and digital platforms through JioCinema and Hotstar. 

The Company will also purchase 13.01% equity stake (on a fully diluted basis) of Viacom18 from Paramount Global, thereby increasing the holding of the Company in Viacom18 to 70.49% (on a fully diluted basis). The JV will be controlled by the Company and owned 16.34% by the Company, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney. Reliance has committed to invest Rs 11,500 crore into the JV for its growth plan. 

The merger of TV18 and E18 (Moneycontrol) with Network18 has been initiated to consolidate TV and Digital news assets in one company. It will simplify the holding structure and create India’s leading integrated news media conglomerate. 

The company pegs sports to be a key driver for growth of the digital segment.

“Live sports has always been one of the most important genres for consumers across the world. Its broad demographic appeal and unique ability to reach millions of audiences concurrently with high engagement levels, ensures a consistent flow of traffic. Sports streaming on digital platforms scaled new heights last year as viewership records were broken repeatedly,” the report stated.

The company claims that JioCinema was amongst the fastest growing OTT in the country, “outpacing all competitors in terms of expansion and user acquisition.”

Operating revenue of the Network18 Group for the year grew by 49.4% Y-o-Y, driven by strong growth across both Entertainment and News segments. The businesses made significant investments during the year in scaling up its new verticals, Sports and Digital, which impacted the profitability. 

“Networks18’s Digital news portfolio continued to be India’s #2 online news publisher with leadership in the vernacular genre. It closed the gap with the leader to ~15% (from 40% at the beginning of the year) in terms of reach. Moneycontrol retained its status as India’s premier platform for financial news and also launched transaction-based products on the platform including lending and fixed deposits. Moneycontrol Pro was India’s #1 paid digital news platform. Firstpost’s pivot as a digital-first, video focussed brand got great traction with consumers, helping it cross 4 million subscribers on YouTube,” it said.

With regard to its television network, the report, quoting BARC data, says that its flagship channel, Colors, reached its highest ever share in the last 12 years and consistently closed the gap with the leader. Colors Cineplex improved its share and ranking during the year while Colors Kannada continued to be a strong #2 player. Its Kids, English and Youth portfolios continued to be #1 in their respective segments.