India’s media colossus JioStar is doubling down on content material funding, pouring roughly $3.6 billion into programming this yr, with plans to extend spending additional in 2026, in keeping with vice chair Uday Shankar.
Talking at Mumbai’s inaugural World Audio Visible Leisure Summit (WAVES), Shankar revealed the corporate’s aggressive content material technique whereas highlighting the explosive progress potential of India’s media market.
“In 2024, the corporate spent [INR]25,000 crores [$3 billion] on content material alone. In 2025, that quantity went to [INR]30,000 crores [$3.6 billion], and the quantity subsequent yr will likely be over [INR]32,000-35,000 crores [$3.8-4.1 billion],” Shankar advised interviewer Vivek Couto of Media Companions Asia. “In three years, we’ve got spent greater than $10 billion.”
For the reason that $8.5 million merger of Reliance’s Jio platforms with Disney’s Indian property, JioStar has defied trade skeptics by rising each its conventional pay TV and streaming companies. The corporate now boasts half a billion platform guests, although Shankar declined to substantiate particular subscriber numbers, which had been final recorded at 200 million in April.
“The narrative was that pay TV is useless. The narrative was that the premium streaming area is a restricted area of 15-20 million subscribers,” Shankar stated. “Pay TV has added numbers, not misplaced numbers since we got here collectively, as a result of we’re very centered.”
In regards to the significance of affordability within the Indian market, Shankar burdened: “If you happen to’re solely promoting to 15-20 million folks, you may value it at no matter worth you need. But when your ambition is to take it to 300 million or half a billion folks, then it’s important to preserve their affordability entrance and middle in your technique.”
He credited value sensitivity as a key driver of India’s media progress. “The whole explosive progress of cable and satellite tv for pc tv on this nation has occurred as a result of the leaders of cable and satellite tv for pc trade saved value sensitivity out there. And we have to be value delicate.”
Shankar criticized media firms globally for failing to innovate monetization fashions. “Seventy years in the past, newspapers had been taking promoting and charging subscription. Even at the moment, the most recent media firm continues to be doing subscription and promoting,” he noticed.
He predicted India’s $30 billion video leisure market may double inside 5 years if firms pursue deeper distribution and develop content material tailor-made particularly for Indian audiences. “There’s a must go deeper and create new manufacturers,” Shankar stated, emphasizing alternatives in tier three and 4 cities.
The manager additionally addressed India’s theatrical market challenges, noting that whereas the Hindi-language Bollywood has struggled, southern Indian movie industries proceed to thrive – a divergence he attributed to content material evolution failing to maintain tempo with altering viewers preferences within the north.
Trying forward, Shankar urged regulators to keep away from homogenizing rules throughout completely different platforms. “If the media firms haven’t innovated sufficient, the regulators are even additional behind,” he remarked. “You retain listening to even now conversations about ‘all screens needs to be handled alike’… however you can not try this. Then you’ll kill the worth in each companies.”
