Disney-RIL joint venture and the making of a media goliath in India
In June 2022, when Mukesh Ambanibacked Viacom 18 outbid Disney Star to bag the digital rights to stream the Indian Premier League, everyone knew India’s broadcasting sector was set for a major shake up. Until then, Disney Star was the undisputed leader in this space.
The ₹23,758 crore bid by Viacom 18 catapulted its streaming app Jio Cinema into the living rooms of millions of viewers. Mr. Ambani broke Disney Star’s subscriptionbased model by streaming IPL matches for free. As a result, Star India's consolidated net profit for FY23 slid 31% to ₹1,272 crore.
Around the same time Mr. Ambani started talks with former Walt Disney and Star India boss Uday Shankar and James Murdoch’s investment vehicle, Lupa Systems.
What followed is a twoyear long play, in which Reliance blew its competition in its signature fashion using deep pockets, ultimately culminating in India’s largest media merger creating a $8.5 billion media behemoth, the DisneyReliance joint venture.
The joint entity will command 50% of India’s streaming market, reaching 243.5 million Internet users in India. The platform has ICC cricket broadcast and digital rights till 2027, digital rights for IPL till 2027 and media rights for BCCI domestic and international matches till 2027. It also owns rights for EPL and the Olympics.
Difficult times
The merger has made the operating environment even more difficult for the number 3 and number 4 players, Zee and Sony.
To counter the DisneyReliance effect, Zee and Sony tried to merge their businesses but failed.
(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)