Indian media giant Geostar, which was formed through the merger of Disney’s Star India and Reliance’s Viacom18, reported a record quarterly EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of $196 million for the quarter ended September 30, with an industry-leading profit margin of 28.1%, parent company Reliance Industries said.
The Media business had total revenue of $815 million in the second quarter of 2026, with after-tax profit of $149 million. During the half year, JioStar generated revenue of $2.08 billion, EBITDA of $310 million and a profit margin of 17.5%.
The platform’s streaming service, JioHotstar, averaged 400 million monthly active users during the quarter and showed strong user retention even after the conclusion of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament. The platform’s ability to maintain engagement post-IPL is attributed to its robust performance across both sports and entertainment properties.
The Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy between India and England became the most-watched Test series ever on digital platforms, attracting 170 million viewers and setting a new reach benchmark for cricket on streaming services.
“Our continued focus on personalization and seamless content discovery, combined with effective marketing strategies, has resulted in improved user retention and increased engagement,” the company said in its earnings call.
The network reached more than 830 million television viewers and generated more than 60 billion hours of viewing time during the quarter. JioStar improved its TV entertainment viewership share by 30 basis points year-on-year to 34.5%.
On the sports front, the Wimbledon Tennis Championship recorded 77% growth on JioHotstar while the newly won US Open set a benchmark of 388 million viewer minutes on linear TV, the highest in the tournament’s history. Other major events such as Premier League Soccer, Pro Kabaddi League Season 12 and ICC Women’s World Cup Cricket also got off to a good start during the quarter.
Star Plus has mesmerized the viewers with the much-awaited revival of the long-running soap ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’. The show attracted record viewership across television and digital platforms and represents the biggest launch of Hindi general entertainment channel Fiction in the last five years.
Digital subscriptions continued to grow strongly, supported by a curated content calendar and effective subscriber lifecycle management. Shows like “Special Ops 2,” “Sarzameen,” and “Heart Beat 2” not only set new benchmarks for the platform but also topped external ranking charts.
The platform’s international content library continued to perform well with increased adoption of dubbed content in various local languages, expanding audience reach and engagement.
JioStar’s ‘Bigg Boss’ series (India’s version of the ‘Big Brother’ format) recorded a 55% year-on-year growth in digital viewing time in Hindi, Malayalam and Telugu, while the third installment of the film series ‘Jolly LLB’ did well at the box office.
For the period November 14, 2024 to March 31, 2025 (representing 25 years of performance), JioStar reported total revenues of $1.24 billion and EBITDA of $87 million, corresponding to a profit margin of 8.1% in the first post-merger period.
