Latest news with #KevinVaz
India.com
28-05-2025
- Business
- India.com
Mukesh Ambani's masterstroke, JioHotstar crosses 280000000 subscribers in…, surpasses Jeff Bezos's Amazon Prime, soon to outshine Netflix's…
JioStar has achieved a major milestone by reaching 280 million subscribers. It was launched in February this year and is now close to OTT platform Netflix, which has 300 million subscribers. During a discussion on financial results in April, JioStar CEO Kevin Vaz stated, 'In just three and a half months, the number of our paying subscribers has reached 280 million. We are very close to Netflix in this regard, although their figures include subscribers from all over the world.' JioStar has already surpassed Amazon Prime Video which is at third position, with over 200 million subscribers. Media Partners Asia Insights claimed in a LinkedIn post that JioHotstar could surpass 300 million subscribers before the final match of the IPL in May. The IPL final is now scheduled for June 3. JioHotstar already shows ads, and Prime Video also announced that it would begin showing ads on its platform from June 17. It launched with around 50 million subscribers but later surged past 200 million by April. The IPL played a big role in the platform's rapid growth in number of subscribers. JioHotstar was launched about 6 months ago. This platform came into existence after the merger of Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema. This platform currently has the rights of both digital and TV of IPL. The media report says that the company has benefited after adopting the paid model for IPL matches. This growth is not only due to exclusive content from Warner Bros., Discovery, HBO, NBCUniversal's Peacock, Disney, and Paramount but also because of its streaming rights to cricket tournaments like the ICC Champions Trophy, Women's Premier League (WPL), and IPL.
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Business Standard
27-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
JioHotstar races ahead, now second only to Netflix with 280 mn subscribers
JioHotstar, the streaming platform of India's biggest media conglomerate, JioStar, has reached 280 million subscribers since its launch in February, bringing it closer to Netflix, the US-based subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) OTT platform with over 300 million subscribers. 'Within a short period of three and a half months… we have got 280 million paid subscribers,' said Kevin Vaz, chief executive officer (CEO), entertainment, JioStar, in an earnings call in April. 'Globally, we are very close to Netflix, which gets this [subscriber base] from across the world.' In comparison, Amazon Prime Video has over 200 million Prime members (some countries have Prime Video services bundled with their Prime membership, while in some regions Prime Video exists as a standalone video service, which is not included under Prime membership). Earlier, in April, Media Partners Asia Insights, through its LinkedIn post, had projected that JioHotstar would reach 300 million subscribers before the IPL final in May, which is now rescheduled to June 3. JioHotstar did not respond to an email query on when it expects to surpass Netflix's subscriber base. A major differentiator between Netflix and rivals Prime Video and JioHotstar is the advertisement-supported model (AVOD) adopted by the latter two. Prime Video will introduce limited advertisements from 17 June. At launch, the combined platform of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar had around 50 million subscribers, which surged to over 200 million in April, largely due to the Indian Premier League (IPL). Since the start of this year, JioHotstar has gained momentum not only due to its wide range of international content from top American studios—such as Warner Bros., Discovery, HBO, NBCUniversal's Peacock, Disney and Paramount—but also due to ongoing major cricket events like the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy, the Women's Premier League, and the IPL. 'JioHotstar has a large broadcasting network and this network has a huge base in the majority of the sports event rights in India. This becomes a huge advantage for it [JioHotstar, particularly in cricket streaming], and compared to this, it is hard for others [other major OTT platforms like Netflix and Prime Video] to achieve that scale in India,' said a media buying executive. In the same earnings call, Vaz highlighted that JioHotstar's content library of 320,000 hours is six times larger than that of Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. He added that the India–New Zealand ICC Champions Trophy final match achieved a concurrency of 61 million, setting a world record for the number of people watching a sports event simultaneously. 'If I have to put it into perspective, as many of us might know of the Super Bowl in the US. Let me tell you, their peak concurrency could be one-fourth of it [compared to the India–New Zealand final match],' Vaz noted. He further said that JioHotstar's catalogue includes 250 original titles—the highest among its contemporaries. On a monthly basis, the Indian OTT platform has 503 million users, which is considered significant compared to other major platforms in the country.
Time of India
07-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Walt Disney posts $103 million equity loss from India JV JioStar in Q2
Live Events The Walt Disney Company reported a $103 million equity loss from its India JV with Reliance Industries and Bodhi Tree Systems for the March quarter and $136 million for the six-month period in its Q2 FY25 also reported a $300 million loss from its India JV over the six-month period, primarily due to accounting adjustments related to the formation of JioStar, as previously disclosed in loss relates to Disney's 37% stake in the JV, which was completed on November 14, 2024. The JV brings together Disney's India media assets, including Star India and Disney+ Hotstar, with Reliance's media businesses under Viacom18. Reliance owns 56% of the JV, while Bodhi Tree Systems holds 7%.As part of the deal, Disney deconsolidated Star India from its books and now treats its stake as an equity change led to a sharp drop in international revenue, which fell 55% year-on-year to $223 million for the quarter ending March 29. Operating income from international operations also dropped 84% to $15 from companies in which Disney owns a stake fell to $36 million from $141 million a year earlier. Disney's linear networks operating income grew 2% year-over-year, though the prior-year comparison includes $89 million in operating income from Star India in Q2 this, the JV—now operating as JioStar—posted a net profit of Rs 229 crore (about $27 million) on revenue of Rs 10,006 crore ($1.2 billion) for the period since the merger until March 31. It also reported Rs 774 crore ($93 million) in EBITDA with a 7.7% margin."We have had robust financial performance, keeping in mind, despite the weak macroeconomic situation that is there. We have had higher sports revenue led by ICC Trophy as well as IPL. And despite the headwinds, we have kept a very close eye on our costs and to ensure that we have profitability and have positive financials for this period," JioStar CEO - Entertainment Kevin Vaz said during Reliance Industries' Q4 FY25 earnings also recorded non-cash charges of $143 million tied to the JV deal and another $109 million related to content streaming operating income rose to $336 million from $47 million a year ago, helped by higher subscription prices and the absence of losses from Star India's earlier IPL Disney remains liable for $1 billion in letters of credit issued by Star India before the merger, with guarantees extending through the end of now reaches 760 million viewers monthly and holds a 34% share of India's TV entertainment market. Its streaming platform, JioHotstar—formed by merging Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema—had 280 million paid subscribers and 503 million monthly active users in March 2025.
