RIL-owned Viacom18 was the grist of the mill when it bagged the digital broadcasting rights of the IPL for ₹24,352 crore for the next five years, overtaking Disney Star, the incumbent holder.
“We have a game plan. We wanted digital rights; we went after digital rights; we procured digital rights. We believe that we would be in a position to offer the best consumer experience with this game plan,” says Jyoti Deshpande, CEO, Viacom18. Her tenure has also seen Bodhi Tree Systems, a platform of James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and Uday Shankar, lead a strategic investment of ₹13,500 crore in Viacom18 — a transaction that will also see the popular JioCinema OTT app transferred to Viacom18. “It’s our aspiration to create a superapp kind of an experience... where you can discover all the content that the entire family needs,” says Deshpande.
The 38 channels in Viacom18, along with the two infotainment channels in its JV with A&E Networks, had a 11.2% viewership share in the non-news genre in FY22. It also raked in operating revenues of ₹4,264 crore in FY22 and delivered its highest-ever annual EBITDA of ₹777 crore. “The next three years would be about building a huge digital proposition,” says Deshpande.— — Rishi Kant