Reliance Industries Limited(RIL) is one of the biggest business networks in India. The business giant has shown its presence in every sector including telecom, grocery, oil, and gas, etc. Recently, it has also acquired Future Group to strengthen its operations in the retail sector. The media sector is also one such field dominated by RIL. As per recent reports, RIL owns over 72 media channels with a huge user base of 800 million.
Reliance Rules Media Sector
Two years back, in its 42nd annual meeting, RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani revealed to its stakeholders and employees that RIL owned 72 television channels are watched by over 800 million users in India. As per the Indian viewership analytics, this user base has a 95% share of TV viewing users.
Talking further about the media presence, Mukesh Ambani said:
“Our News18-branded TV news platform is the largest by regional footprint, ratings or revenue. Our entertainment portfolio, led by Colors, has grown in stature, with its mass and niche offerings. Network 18 is among the top digital media players in the country, with one in four Indians on our websites or apps, across Moneycontrol, Firstpost, Voot, News18.com, and many others.”
The Reliance chairman also talked about Jio, the rising telecom startup owned by RIL. He said:
“JIO is a startup built in India for India by Indians. And we have a special place in our hearts for startups. You may know that 80% of the cost of running a startup goes towards cloud and connectivity infrastructure. I want to announce today that Jio is ready to take away this cost by making the connectivity and cloud infrastructure-free for budding startups. I urge all startups to register for their custom-designed package on Jio.com from 1st Jan 2020.”
Due to the control over major Indian media channels, the Jio tv app has become very popular among smartphone users. Jio subscribers can easily enjoy all tv channels remotely by their Jio app. It provides a live telecast of the sports. You can also watch your favorite show through this app.
Reliance has Collaborated with Hathway Cable and Den Network
Last year, RIL’s Netwok18 media group has tied up with Hathway Cable, Datacom, and Den Networks to compete with Zee Group.
As per the deal, the entire broadcasting business will be under the banner of Network18, while the cable and ISP businesses will be in two separate wholly-owned subsidiaries of Network18.
With the current merger, the media group has a target to achieve Rs 8000 crore revenue that will be the maximum in the media industry by any group globally.
As per ET reports,
“The cable businesses of Den and Hathway will become one entity providing last-mile connection to over 15 million households in India, as per the press release. The combined broadband entity, meanwhile, will serve over 1 million wireline broadband subscribers across the country.”
As per an internal report posted by Economic Times, Sony Network is also in talks with RIL for mergers. But, this discussion is completely independent of earlier collaboration done by RIL.
Network18 Group, owned by RIL, is already generating huge revenues in the media industry. As per financial experts’ estimation, the company is earning approximately Rs 1300 crore to Rs 1400 crore revenue quarterly for the last two years.
