Former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly hosted the first-ever “Bigg Boss Bangla,” which launched this quarter on streaming service JioHotstar. The reality franchise rolled out in six languages, and all editions together pulled in more than 90 million viewers in their first three weeks. That makes “Bigg Boss” the biggest entertainment property on the platform.
Margins came under pressure. EBITDA from operations dropped 10.5% to INR13.7 billion ($143 million), and the margin fell to 22.1% from 28.1% a year earlier. A 36.6% drop in investment income pulled total EBITDA down 13.6% to INR15 billion ($157 million). The quarter was also well below April–June, when JioStar booked INR109.5 billion ($1.1 billion) in revenue from operations.
The company also introduced “Pay Kisi Aur Se” (“Ask Others to Pay”), which lets users send a subscription payment request to a friend or relative. Reliance said the feature raised payment initiations by 10%. Subscribers on mobile plans now get up to two hours a month of viewing on connected TVs. The average JioHotstar viewer on a connected TV watches three times as much as one on a phone.
The results came two days after Jio Platforms, Reliance’s separate telecom and digital arm, listed on Indian stock exchanges. Reliance said the INR301.9 billion ($3.15 billion) IPO is the largest in India to date. Mukesh Ambani, Reliance’s chairman and managing director, said the issue was subscribed more than 22 times.
