JioStar Reports 53% Decline in Quarterly Profit Amid Advertising Slowdown and Rising Content Costs

JioStar Reports 53% Sequential Drop in Net Profit in March Quarter

JioStar, the Reliance-controlled media and entertainment company, reported a significant decline in net profit for the March quarter, weighed down by weak advertising revenue, higher content costs, and continued sports investments. In a statement released on Friday, the company reported a net profit of ₹419 crore, a nearly 53% sequential drop from the previous quarter.

The company's fourth-quarter revenue from operations rose 21.4% quarter-on-quarter to ₹8,372 crore, while its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) fell to ₹827 crore from ₹1,303 crore in the three months through December 2025. Despite the decline in Ebitda, JioStar's television and streaming businesses saw a boost from strong performances by Hindi and regional soaps, OTT originals, and the T20 Men's Cricket World Cup.

The company's digital subscriptions saw sustained quarter-on-quarter growth, with direct-to-consumer subscriptions reaching an all-time high. Average monthly active users (MAU) stood at 500 million, rising 10% sequentially in the March quarter. JioStar has also partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT-powered conversational voice discovery (CVD) that allows users to search for, discover, and discuss content via natural language (text or voice) in multiple languages.

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The company's sports programming featured the ICC T20 World Cup, Women's Premier League, and the India vs New Zealand bilateral series. IPL 2026, which began late March, reached over 515 million viewers on linear TV and digital during the opening weekend. In terms of entertainment programming, JioStar said TV entertainment viewership share stood at 34.2% share, reaching over 810 million viewers nationally.

The company's regional language market, including Star Pravah (Marathi), Star Jalsha (Bengali), Star Maa (Telugu), and Asianet (Malayalam), ranked number one as far as entertainment channels go. JioHotstar, the video-streaming platform created by merging Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema, has crossed 300 million paid subscribers, according to RIL. In contrast, paid subscribers for Amazon Prime Video in India currently stand at 21 million compared to 12-15 million for close rival Netflix.