Mukesh Ambani's Reliance, Disney working on terms to merge media operations in India: Report
Reliance Industries (RIL) is in talks with Walt Disney Co to merge their Indian media operations, according to a report by The Economic Times. A newly-formed unit of Reliance's Viacom18 will reportedly absorb Disney's Star India through a share swap deal in January as per the discussions.
JioCinema turns choosy; Jio Studios looks for new content buyers The English Daily added that Reliance may pay cash for a 51% stake in the proposed Viacom18 unit while Disney owns 49%. However, the unit's board is expected to have equal representation from both parties, according to the newspaper.
Viacom18 partners SFA to broadcast school games In October Bloomberg reported that the entertainment unit of India's Reliance was valuing Disney's India assets, comprising the Disney Hotstar streaming service and Star India, at between $7 billion and $8 billion. At the time, Disney valued the operations at $10 billion.
Sony+Disney might make better sense than Sony+Zee Earlier, Disney also explored options to sell or find a partner for its India assets and has held talks with billionaires Gautam Adani and Sun TV Network owner Kalanithi Maran as well as private equity firm Blackstone, according to various media reports. However, Disney may now sell a controlling stake in the business to Reliance.
Reliance, whose broadcast venture Viacom18 runs JioCinema has put increased pressure on Disney India and other streaming platforms, with Ambani marketing the platform by offering free access to the IPL cricket tournament, digital rights of which were earlier with Disney. Viacom18 wins BCCI media rights for ₹5,963 cr Disney Star has seen declining subscriber numbers after losing the IPL streaming rights but it hasn’t ceded the entire cricket business,
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