Viacom18 Investing Aggressively In Movie Rights, Original Content For OTT: Mukesh Ambani

Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL’s) entertainment arm Viacom18 is looking to aggressively invest in movie rights and original content for its OTT platform, the company’s CMD Mukesh Ambani said during its annual general meeting on Monday (August 29). 

Talking about the growth of Viacom18, Ambani said that it has “consolidated its leadership position with a high-decibel entry into sports” by bagging the digital rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next five years. 

In June, Viacom18 beat Disney-Star to win the digital rights for the marquee cricket tournament for INR 20,500 Cr ($2.57 Bn). 

As per a recent JM Financial report, the OTT platform of Viacom18, Voot, would become a leading player in the Indian market and would be able to break even in 2027 driven by IPL viewership.

Voot competes with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sony Liv, among others, in India.

“In news, entertainment, and sports, digital is a core and fast-growing theme as we prepare to embrace the 5G revolution. Our partnership with Bodhi Tree, James Murdoch, Uday Shankar and Paramount Global will help Viacom18 with additional talent bandwidth and enable us to create a world-class media & entertainment business,” Ambani said. 

RIL’s overall media business, which also includes its news channels, achieved its highest growth last year as high engagement resulted in record subscriptions and advertising revenue.

As per a recent Statista report, the revenue in video OTT segment is expected to grow at an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.23% between 2022 and 2027 resulting in a projected market volume of $3.76 Bn by 2027.

Other Announcements During The AGM

Ambani also spoke about RIL’s plans for its telecommunication, retail, new energy and other businesses.

He said that RIL’s telecom arm Reliance Jio is set to launch 5G services in cities including Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, and Kolkata by Diwali. Besides, the company plans to take its 5G coverage to every town of the country by December 2023.

Meanwhile, Reliance Retail saw a 2.5X growth in its number of orders delivered, with the daily order count at around 6 Lakh in FY22. The retail subsidiary’s digital platforms saw 4.5 Bn visits during the year, a 2.3X increase on a year-on-year basis (YoY).

RIL reported a 40.8% YoY surge in its overall consolidated net profit to INR 19,443 Cr during the April-June quarter of FY23.