Brands
JioStar reveals Festive Sentiment Survey 2025
MUMBAI – As the country gears up for the upcoming festive season, JioStar today released the 2025 edition of the JioStar Festive Sentiment Survey, which reveals that 92 per cent of Indian consumers plan to continue or increase their festive spending this year, signalling robust consumer confidence and a golden opportunity for brands. The survey, built to decode how India is thinking, spending and discovering this festive season, uncovers key trends for marketers – a growing millennial spend base, men spending more this festive season but women set to drive diversity in purchases, shopping across more categories such as fashion, beauty, wellness, home appliances, and mobiles, gifting resurgence with nearly 1 in 2 consumers shopping for others this season and most importantly 65 per cent of consumers yet to decide which brands they will buy from. With an average festive shopping budget of ₹16,500, the window to influence purchase decisions is wide open.
JioStar is India’s most powerful entertainment engine, commanding ~50 per cent TV viewership during festive peaks and to capture the hearts of audiences and the attention of advertisers, JioStar also unveiled its most expansive entertainment line-up yet. From kids to families to premium audiences, JioStar’s festive programming ensures there’s something for everyone, with iconic characters, beloved shows, and new launches lighting up every screen. At the heart of this festive season lies #HarGharMeinJashn, JioStar’s flagship celebration of India’s biggest cultural months. Through this campaign, JioStar aims to go beyond just programming and focus on building moments of joy, memory and meaning across screens.
“This year’s festive outlook is marked by strong consumer optimism and evolving media consumption. Marketers are looking to engage audiences across platforms and languages, and that’s where JioStar’s robust festive offering becomes invaluable. With #HarGharMeinJashn, we are creating a high-impact funnel for brands across discovery, intent, and purchase touchpoints,” said JioStar head of revenue, entertainment, Mahesh Shetty.
As India prepares to celebrate, JioStar’s diverse content line-up includes a robust mix of reality and fiction that span cultures and languages. The line-up includes pan-India favourites like Bigg Boss across five languages, Star Parivaar Awards, a new weekend prime-time reality format Pati Patni Aur Panga, JioHotstar Specials such as Trial 2, Salakaar and Rambo in Love and marquee movies such as Chhaava, Kesari 2, Empuraan and Thudaram. Fiction powerhouses continue to drive daily engagement, with shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (Hindi), Siragadikka Aasai (Tamil), and Chempaneer Poovu (Malayalam) resonating deeply with audiences. International titles such as Thunderbolts, A Minecraft Movie, Final Destination Bloodlines, King & Conqueror, Only Murders in the Building S5 will also resonate with the newer audiences.
With curated programming across Onam, Durga Puja, Navratri, Ganesh Utsav and Diwali, JioStar ensures that brands are placed at the heart of every celebration. JioHotstar will also bring families together for large-scale digital celebration Janmashtami LIVE, Navratri LIVE, Dussehra LIVE. The hyper-local festive programming is market-specific and curated to align with regional traditions, viewer behaviours, and cultural nuances.
JioStar, with its unprecedented reach across TV and digital, is uniquely positioned to convert this consumer momentum into measurable brand impact. The survey, developed to decode how India is thinking, spending, and discovering this season, points to strong media influence and significant opportunity for last-mile persuasion.
JioStar’s media solutions this festive season are sharper, smarter, and more immersive than ever. Alongside high-impact formats like pre-roll takeovers, pause ads and interactive formats, this year introduces innovations such as MegaBlasts for maximum reach, JioStarverse for AI-powered influencer marketing and Moment.ai for contextual storytelling. Advertisers can also tap into smarter ad formats, including countdown, location-based and AQI-based dynamic formats, unlocking real-time relevance and driving deeper audience engagement.
As Indian homes light up, so do their screens, and JioStar is where brands can show up meaningfully and memorably. JioStar is giving advertisers every tool to make their presence count, at scale, in context, and in culture.
Other Key Findings from the JioStar Sentiment Survey 2025 include:
· Increased spending capacity: 85 per cent say their financial situation has improved or stayed the same over the last year
· Millennial vs. Gen Z: Millennials expected to spend more than Gen Z, with higher budgets and category intent
· Women shoppers drive variety: Women will shop across more than 2 categories, including apparel, beauty, gadgets, and home décor
· Top product categories: Apparel and fashion (33 per cent), mobiles (27 per cent), electronics (18 per cent), followed by holidays, jewellery, and beauty
· Online discovery leads: 76 per cent of consumers cite online ads as the top information source, followed by OTT/UGC content and social media
· High brand influence opportunity: 65 per cent of shoppers have not yet decided on the brand they’ll buy from—opening the door for last-mile persuasion
· Balanced retail channels: 52 per cent plan to shop online; 42 per cent offline, indicating the need for omnichannel strategies
· Digital payments dominate: 61 per cent of shoppers prefer cashless options, led by UPI and mobile wallets
Link to the Festive Sentiment Report
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
