MUMBAI: It has crossed the billion subscriber mark making it a time to pop the champagne at Sony Pictures Networks India. The latest Q2 2018 financials (up to 30 September 2017) announced by Sony Corp reveals that there was a spike in its global subscriber base from 793.2 million to 1.206 billion, courtesy its Indian bunch of channels.

The reason: the additional distribution that its latest acquisition - Ten Sports Network channels - garnered in various global markets. Additionally, it has been further pushing its existing channels on newer platforms globally. Sony Pictures Television’s media networks vertical operates 101 channels with 189 feeds in Asia, Australia and North America and has a total of 1.94 billion subscribers across the world (as of 30 September 2017).

The 1.206 billion subs for India originating channels means that they account for more than 50 per cent of the total for the megacorp.

Indian rival Zee Entertainment claims 1.3 billion viewers for its 35 domestic channels and 39 international channels which are available in 173 countries.