JioStar has the scale to lead impactful change in M&E sector: Uday Shankar
JioStar, the newly formed media behemoth spawned by the merger of Walt Disney’s Star and Viacom18, has the potential to reshape India’s media and entertainment landscape, Vice Chairman Uday Shankar says. “The merger gives us a strong foundation to innovate and experiment, paving the way for transformative change,” he tells Javed Farooqui and Vinod Mahanta in an in-depth conversation that touched upon subjects as diverse as industry structure, vision for the combined entity, and execution challenges in synergy capturing.
Announced last week, the merger has created a company with Rs 26,000 crore ($3.1 billion) in combined revenue for FY24, reaching 750 million viewers through 115 TV channels under the Star and Colors brands. It also includes two of India’s leading streaming platforms, JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. In this exclusive interaction, Shankar discusses the vision for building India’s largest media and entertainment company, the challenges of competing with global tech giants, strategies to address sports business losses, and the future for television that many believe is in an attritional decline. Edited excerpts:
Will the scale of JioStar be able to create a powerful differentiating factor?
This merger presents a tremendous opportunity to redefine the relationship between content and consumers, as well as with key stakeholders like advertisers and distributors.
