Walt Disney Company and Reliance Industries on Wednesday announced signing of binding pacts to merge their media operations in India to create a Rs. 70,000 Crore behemoth. Reliance and its affiliates will hold a 63.16 percent stake in the combined entity that will house two streaming services and 120 Television channels. Disney will hold the remaining 36.84 percent stake, the companies said in a statement.
Reliance has also agreed to invest at closing Rs. 11,500 Crore into the joint venture to give it muscles to fight rivals such as Japan’s Sony and Netflix. Disney+Hotstar has seen its paid subscriber base decline from around 55 million to about 40 million in the first quarter of this financial year because of Reliance’s Jio Cinemas winning exclusive rights for live sports.
The combined entity will have the largest OTT subscriber base and close to 120 channels in the country. Media ventures of Reliance are currently housed in Network 18, which owns TV 18 news channels as well as a plethora of entertainment (under the ‘Colors’ brand) and sports channels.
Disney+Hotstar was launched in India in 2020, post the acquisition of the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox at a valuation of USD 71.3 billion, thereby taking over the operations of Star India and Hotstar. It housed entertainment and cinema channels such as StarPlus and Star Gold as well as sports channels like Star Sports.
