The chairman of India’s Reliance Industries Limited, billionaire Mukesh Amani, hailed a landmark partnership with Disney at the annual general meeting held on Thursday. He also revealed ambitious AI plans.
The Indian Competition Commission has approved, with voluntary modifications, the $8.5 billion merger of key entertainment assets between RIL and The Walt Disney Company India, which was proposed on Wednesday.
Ambani wasted little time in acting as if the merger was already done. He called the Disney deal “the beginning of an era for India’s entertainment sector.”
Ambani stated that “we are combining digital streaming with content creation” and outlined a strategy for “delivering unparalleled content at affordable rates” to consumers of all tastes.
We are very excited about this partnership. Ambani welcomed Disney into the Reliance Family, describing the expanded media as the conglomerate’s key growth driver.
RIL’s Media and Entertainment division achieved over $1 billion in revenue, a 49% growth. Viacom18’s performance was even better, with a 62% increase driven by the sports segment.
JioCinema is the company’s streaming platform. It has reached significant milestones. The JioCinema broadcast of the Indian Premier League Cricket Tournament attracted 620 million Indian viewers this year, an increase of 38% from last year. Ambani said that the total viewership increased by 50%. This made it “the world’s most watched livestream event.” Ambani announced that the subscription pack, which offers originals, reality TV shows, movies, and content from HBO Paramount and NBCU, gained 15 million subscribers within its first 100-day period.
Ambani stated that Colors had risen to the top of the Hindi-language television channels. At the same time, its news networks dominated the viewership. News18 dominated election coverage. CNBC TV18 had an 82% share of viewers on budget day. CNN News18 has been the number-one channel for more than two years.
Moneycontrol has 70 million unique visitors, and MC Pro (a premium service) has over 850,000 subscribers. Ambani stated that Firstpost has expanded globally and recorded 127 million video views in July.
Jio’s 5G network has been rolled out across India and now boasts over 490 million customers. Ambani has set an ambitious goal to double Jio’s revenue and EBITDA in the next three to four years. JioAirFiber is a 5G-based service for home broadband that aims to attract 1 million new subscribers per month.
Ambani’s “Jio AI Everywhere For Everyone,” a vision of artificial intelligence, was a significant theme. The company will build a national AI network, including data centers, to achieve India’s “lowest AI inference cost in the world.” Reliance has developed “Jio Brain,” a set of AI platforms and tools. In November, it will offer 100 GB of free cloud storage for Jio users to support AI services.
Ambani stated that AI in entertainment could provide users with a more personalized experience, making the content more relevant and engaging.
