The growing influence of live cricket and digital streaming continues to reshape India’s media landscape, and according to a report by Variety, those trends helped Reliance Industries generate INR34,917 crore (approx. US$3.7 billion) in revenue from its media and entertainment businesses during FY26. The group’s operations, which include JioStar, JioHotstar, Jio Studios and Network18, also delivered EBITDA of INR5,842 crore (approx. US$618 million) and net profit of INR3,434 crore (approx. US$363 million).
Cricket remained a major growth engine
Sports continued to provide some of the biggest audience numbers across Reliance’s platforms. JioHotstar averaged 451 million monthly active users during the year and became the first paid streaming service in India to surpass one billion downloads. The platform is now accessible on 99% of connected televisions across the country.
Live cricket played a central role in that growth. JioHotstar recorded 72.5 million concurrent viewers during the T20 World Cup, while nine of the ten highest global concurrency records are now held by the platform. The 2026 IPL season attracted more than 700 million viewers across the tournament, underlining the scale of cricket’s contribution to Reliance’s media ecosystem.
On the television side, JioStar captured a 34.7% viewership share and reached 389 million viewers daily, giving the broadcaster a reach nearly equivalent to that of its next three competitors combined.
Entertainment business delivered another strong year
Beyond sport, Reliance’s film business continued to perform strongly. Jio Studios completed its third consecutive year as India’s highest-grossing Hindi film studio.
The “Dhurandhar” franchise generated more than INR3,000 crore (approx. US$318 million) at the global box office and became the first Indian film duology in which both instalments individually crossed INR1,000 crore (approx. US$106 million). Across its portfolio, the studio has accumulated more than 500 awards.
Network18 also expanded its digital footprint, reaching 250 million people each month through television while building a social and digital audience of more than 450 million subscribers and followers. During FY26, its platforms generated more than 65 billion video views.
Reliance expands interactive and creator offerings
The company also continued to broaden its digital products. JioHotstar launched its short-form content platform Tadka in April 2026 and the service reached more than 100 million users within two months.
An in-stream partnership with food delivery platform Swiggy allowed viewers to place orders without leaving live broadcasts during IPL matches. Interactive features such as live chats, polls and meme creation generated more than 11 billion engagements from over 100 million users.
Reliance also introduced Creator18, a new initiative aimed at building content formats for the creator economy and younger audiences.
AI becomes part of the content strategy
Artificial intelligence formed another key part of Reliance’s media plans. During the company’s annual general meeting, Chair Mukesh Ambani unveiled JioStar GenAI Media Studio, or JAMS, describing it as “an end-to-end, AI-native content production pipeline for Bharat, spanning the full journey from ideation and storytelling to image, audio, video, and final production workflows.”
The company also rolled out ChatGPT-powered content discovery with support for Indian accents and regional languages, while adding a multiview feature as it continues to expand the capabilities of its streaming platform.
With live cricket continuing to drive massive audiences and entertainment, technology and creator-focused initiatives broadening the ecosystem, Reliance’s media businesses delivered one of their strongest years yet in FY26.
