Unhappy ending: Why foreign entertainment companies are heading for the exits
₹4,286 crore). People familiar with the developments said the company was looking to exit after Reliance began betting aggressively on sports, as Viacom18 isn’t keen on the category globally. “They were anyway being ousted by Reliance and, globally, have no interest in the sports segment.
Things reached a dead end post the merger with Disney," said a senior analyst, declining to be named. In February, Reliance said that a new joint venture will combine the Viacom18 and Disney Star India businesses. Paramount is not the first foreign entity to have given up on India’s entertainment industry, despite its young content-viewing population and rising disposable income.
In 2009, NBCUniversal exited its partnership with the NDTV Group, which had led to the formation of NDTV Imagine. In 2016, Walt Disney pulled the plug on its Hindi film production, closing UTV Motion Pictures. However, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox Inc.
in a $71-billion cash and stock deal in June 2018. This brought Star India, Fox Star Studios, and Hotstar into the Walt Disney fold. While movie production did continue through Fox Star Studios for a while, the company’s last theatrical release was superhero film Brahmastra in 2022.
The American giant’s focus has now shifted to backing movies for its streaming platform, Disney+ Hotstar. Further, in 2020, Universal Pictures shut its India office, with all its Hollywood titles now distributed in the country by Warner Bros. Reasons for the disenchantment with India vary—from an unpredictable theatrical box office to uneasy intellectual property (IP) sharing terms with local producers, as well as broadcast regulations that make operations challenging.
Read more on livemint.com
