JioStar India, the joint venture between Reliance Industries and Walt Disney, reduced its provision for onerous sports contracts by 31.12% to Rs 17,742 crore in FY26, according to its latest annual report released on Thursday. The sharp reduction follows a steep rise in such provisions in FY25, when the company more than doubled the expected loss buffer on sports rights contracts to Rs 25,760 crore from Rs 12,319 crore in FY24.

The drawdown comes as the company utilised Rs 8,018 crore of the FY25 provision in FY26. More significantly, JioStar has not set aside any additional amount towards sports-related provisions in FY26, its annual filings showed, as operational performance improved during the year under review, propelled by strong sports viewership and digital advertising.

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Assessing Financial Slate

The company reported Rs 31,048 crore in operating revenue, with gross revenue reaching Rs 36,248 crore in FY26. Net profit touched Rs 3,210 crore in FY26, while Ebitda stood at Rs 4,855 crore for the period. The streaming platform averaged 550 million monthly active users by March 2026.

While a direct year-on-year growth percentage cannot be calculated because the previous fiscal year (FY25) covered a truncated period (November 14, 2024–March 31, 2025), when the merged entity JioStar began operations, sector experts said. But the full-year figures, they said, indicate significant commercial momentum despite softness in linear TV advertising.

In the annual report, JioStar said that it was expanding its commerce-led entertainment strategy through AI-powered content discovery, interactive features and integrated in-app ordering during the IPL 2026.

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Commerce Transition

The company also added that JioHotstar’s strategic focus during the year was on “improving monetisation and platform excellence.” The company said the platform had overhauled discovery and personalisation systems to improve recommendation accuracy and audience targeting.

Reliance added that these capabilities were supported by “continued investments in AI across the value chain,” including the launch of “conversational discovery through a strategic partnership with OpenAI to redefine search and content discovery.”