RIL’s media business revenue rises 49% in FY24

Reliance Industries' media arm saw a 49% revenue surge to Rs 10,826 crore in FY24, marking a significant year-on-year increase. 

For the record, the company reported Rs 7,266 crore revenue in FY23.

Reliance Industries on Monday reported its revenue in Q4 from the media business was up by 62.2% (YoY) to Rs 2,808 crore versus Rs 1,731 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. In Q3, the revenue was Rs 2,064 crore.

In a statement, the company said that the media business’ operating revenue for the year was at Rs 9,297 crore, up by 49.4% YoY, driven by strong growth across all segments.

On a QoQ basis, media business revenue from operations was up by 63.0% YoY to Rs 2,419 crore, driven by sports, movies and news verticals.

“Media business delivered one of the strongest performances, setting new operating and revenue benchmarks across verticals,” read the statement.

However, its total loss in FY24 stood at Rs 397 crore. The loss was just Rs 16 crore a year ago.

In Q4, RIL’s media business incurred a loss of Rs 207 crore vs Rs 35 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Its Q3 loss was Rs108 crore. 

Reliance Industries further reported that while its FY24 news business revenue was up 19% YoY, Viacom18 revenue was up 62% Y-o-Y. 

Reliance highlighted that sports fueled the majority of revenue growth for Viacom18, while news revenue saw an uptick driven by both television network and digital platforms.

It added, “The businesses made significant investments during the year in scaling up its new verticals, Sports and Digital. Sports properties like IPL, BCCI cricket series, SA20 and others, helped Viacom18 significantly ramp up its presence in the sports segment. The Group also increased its investments in Digital platforms, both news and entertainment, driving strong growth for JioCinema, Moneycontrol and News18 platforms. The increased investments had an impact on EBITDA for the year.” 

RIL’s Q4 news business revenue was up 25% Y-o-Y, driven by the strong growth in advertising revenue of both TV and Digital Platforms.

Viacom18 Q4 revenue grew 83% YoY led by Sports and Movies segments. 

“Sports revenue growth was primarily driven by 13 IPL matches held during the quarter, as the tournament kicked off earlier this year. The release of 'Fighter', the biggest movie of 2024 so far, drove the growth in the Movies segment. The advertising revenue on TV networks also delivered strong growth on the back of robust viewership share,” shared RIL in a report.

“Consolidated EBITDA of the Group was impacted by continued investments in Sports and Digital verticals of Viacom18, the leading drivers of revenue growth for the foreseeable future,” it wrote further in the report.

RIL’s TV network (Entertainment) share increased to 11.4% in Q4, driven by the strong performance of the Hindi GEC, Movie and Sports portfolio. Its overall share stood at 10.7% in FY24.

“Colors achieved its highest GRPs in the last 8 years and highest market share in the last 12 years. Colors Cineplex maintained its position in the Hindi movie genre. Colors Kannada and Colors Marathi continued to be the two strong channels in the regional markets. IPL 2024 began with a big bang on JioCinema, registering a 50%+ increase in reach on the opening day of the season with 11.3 crore viewers,” stated RIL. 

Reliance further said that Network18’s TV News bouquet was the highest-reach news network in the country, connecting with ~175 million people every week.

On February 28, 2024, Reliance, Viacom18 and The Walt Disney Company announced the signing of binding definitive agreements to form a joint venture that will combine the businesses of Viacom18 and Star India. In addition, RIL will invest Rs 11,500 crore at closing for JV’s growth strategy, valuing the JV at Rs 70,352 crore (~US$ 8.5 billion) on a post-money basis, excluding synergies.

For the full fiscal FY24 (April 2023 to March 2024), Reliance posted a record net profit of Rs 69,621 crore as compared to Rs 66,702 crore earnings in the preceding financial year.

Reliance also became the first Indian company to hit Rs 10 lakh crore turnover in FY24 when revenue from operations rose 2.6 per cent from Rs 9.74 lakh crore in 2022-23.