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disney and Reliance Industries have moved closer to a merger of their huge Indian television and streaming businesses. A combination of the two, which include rival streaming platforms, IndiaIndia’s leading pay TV platform and over 100 linear TV channels, has the potential to substantially reshape India’s media and entertainment scene.
Citing unnamed sources close to the deal, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday that the two companies had appointed lawyers to handle potential antitrust issues that were likely to arise. The agency named both retained law firms.
Reuters also said that the parties had signed a non-binding merger term sheet in late December.
Neither Reliance Industries nor Disney have offered any comment to repeated queries from Variety.
Disney became one of the biggest players in Indian entertainment when it bought 21st Century Fox. The former Murdoch family-run operation included pay-TV platform Star and hugely popular streaming startup Hotstar. Disney later merged Hotstar with its own Disney+ platform to create a mass-market streamer with a low price tag.
Disney’s dominance has been challenged by the Ambani-controlled Viacom18 group and its suite of Jio-branded operations ranging from mobile phones to broadband internet and, later, streaming services. JioCinema.
In what could have been a major miscalculation in 2022, Disney failed to secure broadcast rights for the 2023-2027 seasons of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, which he had shown on Hotstar. Paying approximately $3 billion each, Jio got the streaming rights, while Disney only got the pay-TV rights. And when Jio streamed the IPL for free in 2023, he was able to undercut Star and cause Disney+ Hotstar to lose tens of millions of users.
With Reliance Industries’ deep pockets, Jio has already been able to benefit from one aspect of the ongoing Hollywood consolidation and Wall Street-imposed push for financial rectitude. At the beginning of last year Jio became the new streaming home in India for content from HBO, Max Original and Warner Bros., effectively preventing the launch of HBO Max in India in the near to medium future. HBO’s win was also a loss for Disney, as WBD content had previously aired on Star TV.
If a deal were to be struck, Reliance-Viacom18-JioCInema would likely own a majority stake in the merged entity.
But the same cricket rights that may have brought Disney to the negotiating table may be a sticking point in the merger process. To appease antitrust regulators, some of the IPL rights, which would otherwise be all under one roof, may have to be handed over to rival operators.
Another (unknowable) factor is India’s other potential media and entertainment mega-merger. Sony, which operates channels and a smaller streaming service in the country, is currently attempting to merge with Indian television and streaming conglomerate Zee Entertainment Enterprises. That deal has been in the pipeline for more than two years and may still not be completed. If the Sony-Zee deal to create another giant were completed, Jio and Disney could have fewer problems getting the green light from regulators, ministries and courts.
