JioStar eases drag on Disney earnings amid improving India operations

The Walt Disney Company continued to report losses from its stake in India joint venture JioStar with Reliance Industries, though the drag on earnings eased significantly during the March 2026 quarter, reflecting improving financial performance at the merged media entity.

According to Disney’s latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company reported an equity loss of $64 million from its India joint venture for the quarter ended March 28, 2026, sharply lower than the $103 million loss recorded in the corresponding period a year earlier. For the six-month period, losses narrowed to $92 million compared with $136 million in the previous year, indicating reduced financial pressure from Disney’s India operations.

The development comes nearly two years after Disney merged its India media business with Reliance-backed operations to create JioStar, now India’s largest media and entertainment company, valued at approximately $8.5 billion. The venture combines Disney’s Star-branded entertainment and sports television channels and the erstwhile Disney+ Hotstar streaming platform—now operating as JioHotstar—with select media and entertainment businesses owned by Reliance.

Read On: JioStar FY26: Revenue at Rs 36,248 crore despite soft TV ad income

Disney currently holds a 37% stake in the joint venture, while Reliance owns 56% and investment platform Bodhi Tree Systems controls the remaining 7%.

Following the completion of the merger, Disney ceased consolidating Star India’s revenue and operating performance within its financial statements. Instead, the media conglomerate now reports only its proportional share of profits or losses from JioStar under equity accounting norms. An equity loss refers to the share of losses attributable to a partially owned business that a company does not fully control.

The improving performance of the India business also boosted Disney’s broader earnings from equity investments. Income from equity investees rose to $57 million during the March quarter, up from $36 million a year earlier, driven largely by reduced losses from the India venture.

For the six-month period, Disney’s income from equity investees increased to $150 million from $128 million in the previous year. The company said the improvement was aided by lower losses from JioStar, although gains were partly offset by lower earnings from A+E, Disney’s joint venture with Hearst Corporation.

Financial performance disclosed by Reliance indicates that JioStar has begun to stabilise after inheriting a costly portfolio of sports broadcasting rights. For the financial year ended March 31, 2026, the company reported a net profit of ₹3,210 crore, operating revenue of ₹31,048 crore and EBITDA of ₹4,885 crore, according to Reliance filings.

JioStar currently operates more than 100 entertainment and sports television channels alongside JioHotstar, making it one of India’s largest media distribution and content platforms.

Read On: JioStar: The $8.5bn Disney-Reliance JV that can transform Indian media

However, profitability remains tempered by the high costs of premium sports rights. In FY25, JioStar more than doubled provisions for expected losses on sports rights contracts to ₹25,760 crore from ₹12,319 crore in the previous year. The joint venture consolidated marquee cricket properties—including rights linked to the Indian Premier League (IPL), International Cricket Council (ICC) events and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)—under a single umbrella, while also inheriting the steep acquisition and servicing costs associated with those properties.

Industry observers have viewed the Reliance-Disney merger as a pivotal restructuring of India’s media landscape, creating an entity with dominant scale across sports, entertainment television and streaming. While elevated content and sports rights costs continue to weigh on margins, the latest filings suggest that operational performance at JioStar may be gradually improving, reducing losses for Disney and strengthening the economics of the India partnership.