Walt Disney's Indian Joint Venture Losses Narrow as JioStar Reports Profitability Turnaround

Mumbai: Walt Disney's loss from its Indian joint venture with Reliance Industries (RIL) marginally narrowed to $44 million in the quarter ended June 27, from $50 million a year earlier, reflecting a reduction in loss from the entire business.

For nine months ended June 27, Disney reported a $136 million loss from the JV, down from $186 million a year earlier. Disney said an increase in equity income from investees was driven by the reduced loss from India joint venture.

Disney owns 37% of the JV set up in November 2024 by combining Disney's Star-branded and other general entertainment and sports television channels and Disney+ Hotstar in India with RIL-controlled Viacom18. Disney recognises its share of the joint venture's results under "equity in the income of investees."

The improvement in Disney's India investment tracks JioStar, the Reliance-Disney joint venture, reporting a sharp turnaround in profitability in FY26. Revenue from operations rose 46.5% to ₹30,819 crore from ₹21,044 crore in FY25, while profit after tax surged to ₹3,145 crore from ₹18 crore. RIL owns 56% and Bodhi Tree Systems 7% of JioStar.

JioStar also reduced its provision for onerous sports contracts to ₹17,742 crore as of FY26-end from ₹25,760 crore in the previous year. The company utilised ₹8,018 crore of the provision during the year and didn't make any fresh provision.

In its annual filings, JioStar said certain sports-event contracts continue to be classified as onerous as the expected customer revenues are likely to fall short of costs associated with those events. The provision is intended to account for anticipated future losses.

Disney's year-earlier results were also affected by impairments related to its India investments. For the nine months ended June 28, 2025, the company reported $185 million of restructuring and impairment charges, primarily for an impairment of its investment in Tata Play. It also recorded $143 million of impairment of goodwill related to Star India and $109 million of content impairments.

Tata Play, the 70:30 joint venture between Tata Sons and Disney, widened its net loss to ₹551 crore in FY26 from ₹529 crore a year earlier, while revenue declined 13.5% to ₹3,530 crore from ₹4,082 crore.