Reliance, Disney Completed Merger Deal to create India’s largest media powerhouse

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), Viacom18, and The Walt Disney Company have finally confirmed their media industry merger after months of speculation. As a result, Star India and Viacom18's media and JioCinema companies have amalgamated.

The joint venture (JV) was valued at $8.5 billion (INR 70,352 crore) on a post-money basis, "excluding synergies," according to the agreement. Disney will own 36.84% of the joint venture, while Viacom18 will control 46.82%. The remaining 16.34% of the JV will be owned by RIL.

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Uday Shankar will be the JV's vice-chairperson, while Nita Ambani will be its chairman.

It's important to remember that RIL has contributed $1.4 billion (INR 11,500 crore) to the JV's expansion.

Viacom18's Kiran Mani will lead the merged digital organization, while Viacom18's Kevin Vaz will lead the JV's entertainment division. Star & Disney India's head of sports, Sanjog Gupta, will serve as the organization's leader.

In terms of digital, the joint venture will combine RIL's JioCinema and Disney's Hotstar, while in terms of television, it will combine Star and Colors.

“With the formation of this JV, the Indian media and entertainment industry is entering a transformational era. Our deep creative expertise and relationship with Disney, along with our unmatched understanding of the Indian consumer will ensure unparalleled content choices at affordable prices for Indian viewers,” RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said.

In a joint statement, the companies said that the JV operates over 100 TV channels, producing over 30,000 hours of TV content annually. Further, JioCinema and Hotstar digital platforms have an aggregate subscription base of over 50 Mn.

Last month, it was reported that the combined entity will keep Disney+ Hotstar as its sole streaming platform. As per reports, Reliance had mulled various strategies for integrating the two streaming platforms, including a plan to subsume Disney+ Hotstar into JioCinema. It also explored a plan to operate two separate platforms, with one focussing on sports and the other on entertainment.

According to the announcement, the joint venture would rank among India's biggest media and entertainment businesses, with a pro forma combined revenue of almost INR $3.1 billion (INR 26,000 crore) for the fiscal year 2023–2024 (FY24).

The purchase had to pass through many regulatory hurdles because of the enormous size of the resulting business. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) authorized the merger on August 31 after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved it on August 27.

According to the announcement, antitrust regulators in the EU, China, Turkey, South Korea, and Ukraine have all approved the merger agreement.

According to industry sources, JioCinema halted signing deals with producers and frozen their content budget prior to the merger, Inc42 learned.

But in the lead-up to the merger, Disney had several high-level departures. Chief marketing officer and executive vice-president of Disney+ Hotstar Sidharth Shakdher joined ola Consumer earlier this year. He later left the EV manufacturer to work for Paytm, though.

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