$8.5 million merger <\/a>of Reliance\u2019s Jio platforms with Disney\u2019s Indian assets, JioStar has defied industry skeptics by growing both its traditional pay TV and streaming businesses. The company now boasts half a billion platform visitors, though Shankar declined to confirm specific subscriber numbers, which were last recorded at 200 million in April. <\/p>\n\n\t\u201cThe narrative was that pay TV is dead. The narrative was that the premium streaming space is a limited space of 15-20 million subscribers,\u201d Shankar said. \u201cPay TV has added numbers, not lost numbers since we came together, because we are very focused.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAbout the importance of affordability in the Indian market, Shankar stressed: \u201cIf you\u2019re only selling to 15-20 million people, you can price it at whatever value you want. But if your ambition is to take it to 300 million or half a billion people, then you have to keep their affordability front and center in your strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe credited price sensitivity as a key driver of India\u2019s media growth. \u201cThe entire explosive growth of cable and satellite television in this country has happened because the leaders of cable and satellite industry kept price sensitivity in the market. And we need to be price sensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tShankar criticized media companies globally for failing to innovate monetization models. \u201cSeventy years ago, newspapers were taking advertising and charging subscription. Even today, the latest media company is still doing subscription and advertising,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe predicted India\u2019s $30 billion video entertainment market could double within five years if companies pursue deeper distribution and develop content tailored specifically for Indian audiences. \u201cThere is a need to go deeper and create new brands,\u201d Shankar said, emphasizing opportunities in tier three and four cities.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe executive also addressed India\u2019s theatrical market challenges, noting that while the Hindi-language Bollywood has struggled, southern Indian film industries continue to thrive \u2013 a divergence he attributed to content evolution failing to keep pace with changing audience preferences in the north.<\/p>\n
\n\tLooking ahead, Shankar urged regulators to avoid homogenizing regulations across different platforms. \u201cIf the media companies have not innovated enough, the regulators are even further behind,\u201d he remarked. \u201cYou keep hearing even now conversations about \u2018all screens should be treated alike\u2019\u2026 but you cannot do that. Then you will kill the value in both businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n Naman Ramachandran<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India\u2019s media colossus JioStar is doubling down on content investment, pouring approximately $3.6 billion into programming this year, with plans to increase spending further in 2026, according to vice chair Uday Shankar. Speaking at Mumbai\u2019s inaugural World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit (WAVES), Shankar revealed the company\u2019s aggressive content strategy while highlighting the explosive growth potential<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":845684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1798,4951,143659],"tags":[8366,143658],"class_list":{"0":"post-845683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-indias","9":"category-jiostar","10":"tag-indias","11":"tag-jiostar"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}