Reliance Industries Ltd’s media business operating revenue declined marginally by 2.1 percent in Q2 of FY25 as against similar period last financial year, primarily due to a sharp drop in revenues of the movie segment, which, the company said, is a project-based activity.

Jio Platforms, the digital and telecom arm of  Reliance, witnessed a 23.4 percent jump in net profit on a year-on-year basis.

The energy-to-telecom-to-media-to retail-to fashion conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd., which announced its second quarter financial results yesterday, said though the news portfolio revenue grew 6 percent driven by growth in digital segment advertising revenue, across all brands, TV advertising environment remained soft during the quarter as advertising volumes across industry for the news genre declined by over 20 percent Y-o-Y.

The entertainment business operating revenue was down 5 percent, primarily due to the drop in movie segment revenue. In Q2 FY24, Viacom18 Studios had two big-ticket movies whereas no movies were released in the current quarter. This impact was largely offset by growth in subscription revenue on account of new pricing as well as the increased monetisation of the Sports portfolio.

The company added that the growth in ad revenue was primarily driven by digital, across both sports and non-sports segments. JioCinema’s recently launched SVOD plans witnessed strong traction and helped it become the fastest-growing subscription-based OTT platform in the country.

The group continued to make investments in Sports and Digital, which had an impact on operating profits.

JioCinema, under Viacom18, continued to be the fastest growing subscription-based OTT platform, crossing 16 million paid subscribers, 2x Q-o-Q growth.

The third season of ‘Bigg Boss OTT’ was the top driver for subscription and watch-time. ‘Bigg Boss Marathi’ replicated its success on TV, becoming the third most-watched show on the platform.

International content catalogue on JioCinema was amongst the top drivers of subscriber acquisition during the quarter. Affordable monthly subscription plans of Rs. 29/month and Rs. 89/month (family plan) helped increase the sampling for behind-the-paywall content.

Viacom18’s coverage (on JioCinema and Sports18 TV channels) of Paris Olympics 2024 delivered the highest ever viewership of the event with 170+ million viewers and 15 billion minutes of watch-time across JioCinema and Sports 18.

JioCinema had up to 20 concurrent live streams spanning 17 dedicated feeds for sports and 3 curated streams for India matches and other high viewer interest events, leading to a high engagement of over 50 mins/day on the platform. TV network’s viewership share increased by 100bps Q-o-Q to 11.1 percent.

Colors strengthened its position as the No. 2 prime-time Hindi entertainment channel during the quarter with overall ratings seeing a growth of more than 10 percent Q-o-Q. Both Colors Kannada and Colors Marathi saw a sharp improvement in ratings. Colors Bangla Cinema rose to leadership in the Bengali movie genre and the network maintained its undisputed leadership in niche genres  — Kids, Youth and English.

Network18’s TV news bouquet had an all-India viewership share of 11.9 percent1 in the news genre, 60bps higher on a Q-o-Q basis, driven by growth in viewership across markets, the RIL media statement stated.

The network maintained its leadership as the highest reach news network in the country, reaching over 200 million  people on a weekly basis. The network continued to be the leader in key markets with CNBC TV18 (#1 business channel with 68.0 percent+3 viewership share), CNN News18 (#1 English news channel with 39.5 percent viewership share), and News18 India (#1 Hindi news channel with 13.8 percent viewership share).

Digital property, Firstpost, is nearing 6 million subscribers on YouTube, making it one of the fastest growing news platforms in India.

Jio Platforms Net Profit Up: Meanwhile, a PTI report stated that Jio Platforms yesterday reported a 23.4 per cent year-on-year rise in its consolidated net profit for Q2 FY25 to Rs 6,539 crore, as average revenue per user surged to Rs 195.1 per month.

The revenue from operations of Jio Platforms, which houses Reliance Industries’ telecom and digital businesses, rose 18 per cent to Rs 31,709 crore in the just-ended September quarter.

The gross revenue stood at Rs 37,119 crore in Q2FY25, 17.7 per cent higher than the corresponding period of the previous year.