{"id":8880,"date":"2026-07-17T19:36:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8880"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:36:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:36:41","slug":"ipl-2026-powers-jiostar-to-1-14-billion-quarter-and-streaming-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8880","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0IPL 2026 Powers JioStar to $1.14 Billion Quarter and Streaming Record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIndia\u2019s dominant media platform <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/jiostar\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jiostar\" data-tag=\"jiostar\">JioStar<\/a> generated revenue from operations of INR10,946 crore ($1.14 billion) in the three months ended June 30, 2026 \u2013 a 14% year-on-year increase driven by subscription growth and a surge in digital advertising. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOperating EBITDA rose 30.7% to INR933 crore ($96.8 million), with the company pointing to operating leverage on the back of robust top-line performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/jiohotstar\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jiohotstar\" data-tag=\"jiohotstar\">JioHotstar<\/a>, the group\u2019s streaming platform, averaged 530 million monthly active users during the quarter \u2013 its highest-ever figure and a 15% gain year-on-year. Entertainment watch time on the service grew 16% over the same period. The quarter\u2019s biggest audience event, the <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/indian-premier-league\/\" id=\"auto-tag_indian-premier-league\" data-tag=\"indian-premier-league\">Indian Premier League<\/a> (IPL) cricket tournament, reached a combined 1.2 billion viewers across digital and linear television, with 700 million of those coming through digital alone, making it the most-watched T20 tournament on record.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn linear TV, the JioStar network held a 34% share of total viewership \u2013 reaching more than 810 million viewers across India, per BARC data. In Hindi-speaking markets, the network\u2019s pay-TV share climbed to 44%. Star Plus placed five shows among the top 10 Hindi general entertainment titles for the quarter, while \u201cLaughter Chefs Season 3\u201d held the number-one slot in non-fiction. Star Utsav maintained its lead in the free-to-air segment following its entry on DD FreeDish in April 2025, and the company\u2019s regional stable \u2013 Star Pravah, Star Jalsha, Star Maa, Star Vijay, Asianet and Colors Gujarati \u2013 each retained top-ranked status in their respective markets. JioStar also reported a 47% viewership share in kids\u2019 TV, placing it first in that category.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn the digital product front, Tadka, JioStar\u2019s short-form content hub, crossed 100 million active users within two months of launch, with daily watch-time per viewer rising fivefold since the feature went live. A conversational discovery tool built with ChatGPT is live on the platform, with user engagement rising every month since introduction. A commerce integration with Swiggy, enabling in-app food ordering during live streams, debuted during IPL matches; half of those orders originated from Tier-II cities and beyond. The company\u2019s first AI-generated microdrama, \u201cGame on: 4,000 crore Empire,\u201d produced via its in-house JAMS platform, is also now live.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn sports, regional-language watch time on digital during IPL rose 33% year-on-year. JioStar deployed multilingual voice search via its OpenAI partnership and the Swiggy in-app ordering feature during live IPL matches, giving brand partners a commerce-linked environment around live sport. The ICC Women\u2019s T20 World Cup 2026 generated sponsorship traction in the quarter, drawing partners from consumer electronics, AI and wellness categories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAmong originals, \u201cThukra Ke Mera Pyaar Season 2\u201d and \u201cInspector Avinash Season 2\u201d recorded season-on-season viewership growth of 50% and 65% respectively. \u201cPritam and Pedro\u201d opened to record viewership, making it the number-one Hindi special of 2026. The live premiere of \u201cDhurandhar The Revenge\u201d on JioHotstar drew notable engagement, with one in four viewers participating in live chat, memes or trivia, and one in five interacting with commerce features during the broadcast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe Q1 results follow a full fiscal year in which Reliance\u2019s media operations \u2013 spanning JioStar, JioHotstar, Jio Studios and Network18 \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/dhurandhar-ipl-reliance-industries-media-revenue-fy26-1236785889\/\">posted INR34,917 crore ($3.7 billion) in annual revenue<\/a>, as disclosed by chair Mukesh Ambani at the company\u2019s annual general meeting in June.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India\u2019s dominant media platform JioStar generated revenue from operations of INR10,946 crore ($1.14 billion) in the three months ended June 30, 2026 \u2013 a 14% year-on-year increase driven by subscription growth and a surge in digital advertising. Operating EBITDA rose 30.7% to INR933 crore ($96.8 million), with the company pointing to operating leverage on the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IPL-2025-finals-Virat-Kohli.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}