iWorld
Reliance Industries sets up subsidiary for digital initiatives
Mumbai, 25 October 2019: Reliance Industries Limited (“RIL”), through its digital platform and connectivity initiatives including Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (“RJIL”), has transformed the digital eco-system in the country, catapulting India from 155th rank in broadband penetration to the 1st rank in mobile data consumption within a span of less than three years.
Reliance Jio has built world class digital infrastructure and ecosystem, comprising of:
i) Best in class end-to-end all IP network ii) Tower and Fiber infrastructure iii) Content Delivery Network iv) Digital Applications and Platforms
v) Cloud Infrastructure vi) Technology capabilities
Digital Connectivity:
RJIL has emerged as the platform of choice with industry leading operating metrics, that rank amongst the highest globally:
• Second largest single-country operator globally, with 355 million subscribers
• Strong customer engagement metrics
• Wireless network carries more than 400 crore GBs of data per month, and nearly 1,000 crore of voice minutes per day
• Per capita mobile data usage of 11.7 GB/user/month
• Trending towards half a billion customers, with net additions of 8-10 million per month
This strong operating performance and customer engagement is backed by an end-to-end all IP network offering converged wireless and wireline solutions.
Digital Connectivity Platform and Passive infrastructure separation:
With completion of majority of RJIL’s capital expenditure, for optimizing operational efficiencies and better monetization of the Core Digital Connectivity Platform, tower and fiber passive infrastructure assets of approximately Rs. 1,25,000 crore were demerged from RJIL in March 2019 to Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs).
Post this demerger, RJIL has become asset light having a balance sheet size of Rs. 2,37,000 crore.
Digital Platforms:
The Group has been developing and fostering a vibrant digital ecosystem through various digital applications, tools and platforms (Digital Platforms) spanning self-care, information, entertainment, chat, utility tools etc.
Most of these Platforms are best in class with high customer engagement metrics and differentiated features in their respective categories:
• MyJio: An omni and self-care through single login app, ranks amongst the largest self- care apps in the world;
• JioTV: India’s #1 live TV app; with wide bouquet of channels spanning 16 languages, 11 genres, 630+ channels, 135+ HD channels;
• JioCinema: Amongst the top video entertainment apps in the country; built on state-of- the-art tech platform;
• JioNews: India’s leading news and magazines app with the best-in-class content bouquet covering 900+ magazines, 300+ newspaper editions; varied contents formats including Live TV, Short videos, News articles;
• JioSaavn: #1 music app in the country; continues to be the fastest growing streaming platform, with 45+ million tracks under license across 16 languages with differentiation through Artist Originals Program.
Emerging Platforms:
The Group continues to focus on cutting edge, technology enabled Digital Platforms that enable and accelerate Digital society with, frictionless and seamless universal access and adoption:
i) Healthcare ii) Education iii) Agriculture iv) Commerce
v) Government-to-Citizen services vi) Gaming vii) Manufacturing
and many others.
These Platforms are also backed by investment in following emerging and next generation technologies:
• Blockchain
• Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
• Virtual, Augmented/Mixed Realty
• Computer Vision
• High Performance and Edge Computing
• Natural Language Processing and Voice enabled services
Digital Platforms Holding Company:
A world class New-age Digital Technology Platform entity is proposed for:
• Holding all Digital Platforms including RJIL, the Digital Connectivity Platform
• Further development initiatives of cutting-edge technologies
• Fostering inclusive Digital Society through collaborations & partnerships
• Capital and organization structure that is benchmarked to global digital technology players
• Compelling Investment Thesis with unencumbered capital structure, and
• Enabling early monetization opportunities
The Board of Directors of RIL today approved the formation of a wholly-owned subsidiary (“WOS”) for Digital Platform initiatives and investment of Rs. 1,08,000 crore in the WOS through OCPS.
The WOS will also acquire RIL’s equity investment of Rs. 65,000 crore in RJIL.
Debt reduction in RJIL
The Board of Directors of RJIL approved:
• A scheme of arrangement between RJIL and certain classes of its creditors including debenture holders for transfer of identified liabilities of up to Rs. 1,08,000 crore to RIL;
• Rights Issue of Optionally Convertible Preference Shares (‘OCPS’) aggregating up to Rs. 1,08,000 crore for the purpose of payment of consideration for transfer of identified liabilities – WOS to subscribe to this issue.
Consequent to the above, RJIL will become virtually net debt free company by 31st March 2020, with exception of spectrum related liabilities.
Like global technology peers, the Digital Platform Company with negligible leverage makes a compelling investment proposition for both strategic and financial investors, many of whom have evinced strong interest in partnering with us. It will have significant financial strength to address the Digital Services opportunity in India.
The proposed consolidated structure will be compliant with all statutory requirements.
Commenting on the formation of the Platform Company, Shri Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “This new Company will be a truly transformational and disruptive digital services platform. It will bring together India’s No.1 connectivity platform, leading digital app ecosystem and world’s best tech capabilities globally, to create a truly Digital Society for each Indian. Jio has been heralding the digital services revolution in India and will continue to do so in the years to come.
Given the reach and scale of our digital ecosystem, we have received strong interest from potential strategic partners. We will induct the right partners in our Platform Company, creating and unlocking meaningful value for RIL shareholders.”
Summary of Impact
• Ensures monetization opportunities accrue to shareholders efficiently;
• There is no impact in the value pre and post reorganization for any shareholder;
• There is no impact on the consolidated debt of RIL;
• Consolidation of liabilities in RIL creates an efficient structure to manage debt and cash;
• It does not impact RIL’s standalone credit profile given its robust cash flows and conservative leverage.
About Reliance Industries Limited:
• Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is India’s largest private sector company, with a consolidated turnover of INR 622,809 crore ($90.1 billion), cash profit of INR 64,478 crore ($ 9.3 billion), and net profit of INR 39,588 crore ($5.7 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2019.
• RIL’s activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and digital services.
• RIL is the top most ranked company from India to feature in Fortune’s Global 500 list of ‘World’s Largest Corporations’ – currently ranking 106th in terms of both revenues and profits. The company stands 71st in the ‘Forbes Global 2000’ rankings for 2019 – top-most among Indian companies. It ranks 10th among LinkedIn’s ‘The Best Companies to Work For In India’ (2019).
eNews
How short, addictive story videos quietly colonised the Indian smartphone
A landmark Meta-Ormax study of 2,000 viewers reveals a format that is growing fast, paying slowly and consumed almost entirely in secret
CALIFORNIA, MUMBAI: India has a new entertainment habit, and it arrived without anyone really noticing. Micro dramas, those short, cliffhanger-driven episodic stories built for the smartphone screen, have quietly embedded themselves into the daily routines of millions of Indians, discovered not by design but by algorithmic accident, watched not in living rooms but in bedrooms, on commutes and in the five minutes before sleep.
That, in essence, is the finding of a sweeping new audience study released by Meta and media insights firm Ormax Media at Meta’s inaugural Marketing Summit: Micro-Drama Edition. Titled “Micro Dramas: The India Story” and based on 2,000 personal interviews and 50 depth interviews conducted between November 2025 and January 2026 across 14 states, it is the most comprehensive study of the category in India to date, and its findings are striking.
Sixty-five per cent of viewers discovered micro dramas within the last year. Of those, 89 per cent stumbled upon the format through social media feeds, primarily Instagram and Facebook, without ever searching for it. The algorithm did the heavy lifting. Discovery, as the report puts it bluntly, is algorithm-led, not intent-led.
The typical viewer journey begins with accidental exposure while scrolling, moves through a cliffhanger-driven incompletion hook that makes stopping feel unfinished, and is reinforced by algorithmic repetition until habitual consumption sets in. Only then, when a platform asks for an app download or a payment, does the viewer pause. Trust, not content quality, determines what happens next, and many simply return to the free feed rather than pay. It is a funnel with a wide mouth and a narrow neck.
The numbers on consumption tell their own story. Viewers spend a median of 3.5 hours per week watching micro dramas, spread across seven to eight sessions of roughly 30 minutes each, peaking sharply between 8pm and midnight. Daytime viewing is snackable and low-commitment, squeezed into morning commutes, work breaks and coffee pauses. Night-time is where the format truly lives: private, uninterrupted and, for many viewers, socially invisible. Ninety per cent watch alone, compared to just 43 per cent for long-form OTT content. Half the audience watches during their commute, well above the 37 per cent figure for streaming platforms, a direct reflection of the format’s low time investment advantage.
The audience itself breaks into three segments. Incidental viewers, comprising 39 per cent of the total, are passive consumers who stumble in and rarely seek content actively. Intent-building viewers, the largest group at 43 per cent, are beginning to form habits and seek out episodes but remain cautious. High-intent viewers, just 18 per cent, are the ones who download apps, tolerate ads and occasionally pay: skewing male, younger and urban.
What audiences want from the content is revealing. The top three genres are romance at 72 per cent, family drama at 64 per cent and comedy at 63 per cent, precisely the same top three as Hindi general entertainment television. The format rewards emotional familiarity over complexity. Romance in particular thrives because it demands low cognitive investment, needs no elaborate world-building and plays naturally into the private, pre-sleep viewing window where inhibitions lower and emotional intimacy feels safe.
The most-recalled shows, led by Kuku TV titles such as The Lady Boss Returns, The Billionaire Husband and Kiss My Luck, share a common narrative DNA: rich-poor conflict, hidden identities, power imbalances, melodrama and cliffhangers that make stopping feel physically uncomfortable. Predictability, the research warns, is fatal. Each episode must re-earn attention from scratch.
The terminology question is telling. Despite the industry’s embrace of the phrase “micro drama,” viewers have not adopted it. They call the content “short story videos,” “short dramas,” “reels with stories” or simply “serials.” One respondent from Chennai said bluntly that “micro sounds like a scientific word.” The category is at the stage that OTT occupied in 2019 and podcasts in the same year: widely consumed, poorly named and not yet crystallised in the public imagination.
Platform awareness remains alarmingly thin. Only three platforms, Kuku TV at 78 per cent, Story TV at 46 per cent and Quick TV at 28 per cent, have crossed the 20 per cent awareness threshold. The rest languish in single digits. This creates a trust deficit that directly throttles monetisation: viewers who cannot remember which app they used are hardly primed to enter their payment details.
Yet the appetite is clearly there. Sixty-five per cent of viewers watch only Indian content, drawn by the TV-serial familiarity of the storytelling, the comfort of Hindi as a shared language and the sight of actors they half-recognise from decades of television. South languages are rising fast: Tamil, Telugu and Kannada together account for 24 per cent of first-choice viewing. And AI-generated content, still a novelty, has landed better than expected: 47 per cent of viewers call it creative and unique, with only 6 per cent actively rejecting it.
Shweta Bajpai, director, media and entertainment (India) at Meta, called micro drama “a category that is rewriting the rules of Indian entertainment,” adding that the discovery engine being social distinguishes this wave from previous content formats. Shailesh Kapoor, founder and chief executive of Ormax Media, was characteristically measured: the format, he said, is showing “the early signs of becoming a distinct content category” and, given how closely it aligns with natural mobile behaviour, “has the potential to scale very quickly.”
The format’s fundamental mechanics are working. It enters lives quietly, through boredom and a scrolling thumb, and burrows in through incompletion and habit. The challenge now is monetisation: converting a category of highly engaged but deeply anonymous viewers into paying customers who trust the platform enough to hand over their UPI credentials. The story, as any micro-drama writer knows, is only as good as the next cliffhanger. India’s platforms had better have one ready.
