Mumbai4 minutes ago
- copy link
On February 28, 2024, Reliance and Disney had announced the formation of a strategic joint venture to bring together their entertainment brands in India.
The government has approved the transfer of licenses of non-news and current affairs television channels of Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd to Star India Pvt Ltd. This approval has been given as per the terms of the merger laid down by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
On February 28, 2024, Reliance and Disney had announced the formation of a strategic joint venture to bring together their entertainment brands in India. In this deal, Reliance Industries’ subsidiary company, Viacom18, will be merged with Disney’s Indian unit ‘Star India’.
The new company formed by this merger will be the country’s largest television and digital streaming company. Earlier, on August 30, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had approved the merger of Disney and Reliance Entertainment. The new company formed after the merger will have 75 crore viewers across India.
Answers to some questions related to this merger…
1. Question: Why is the Reliance-Disney merger happening, what is the benefit of it?
answer: Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger had recently said – There is a lot of competition in the market, so the merger will create a bigger company which will help it remain on top in the market. The new company will have the largest OTT customer base. Disney Hotster has about 3.6 crore paying subscribers and Reliance has 1.5 crore paying subscribers. That means, a total of 5.1 crore subscribers.
Partnership with Reliance will give Disney an opportunity to grow its business and reduce risk. At the same time, this will give Mukesh Ambani a strong hold on the entertainment sector worth 28 billion dollars i.e. about Rs 2.3 lakh crore. The new company will be able to compete with companies like Sony and Netflix.
2. Question: What will be the share in the advertising market after the merger?
answer: The new company formed from the merger will have 40% share of the Indian advertising market in the TV and streaming segments. The new company will have a virtual monopoly in cricket advertising revenue. Apart from cricket, there will also be broadcast rights for Wimbledon Tennis Championship, Moto GP and English Premier League.
3. Question: What effect will this merger have on you, will you get cheaper plans?:
answer: India is a huge market for entertainment services. In such a situation, American streaming companies like Netflix and Amazon have been attracted towards the Indian market. Disney and Reliance are also on OTT, which are facing competition from Netflix and Amazon.
Both these companies can launch cheap plans to increase the user base. The audience will get direct benefit from this. Whereas Disney’s viewers will have access to Reliance’s content and Reliance’s viewers will have access to Disney’s content.
4. Question: How much is this deal, who will be the chairperson of the new company?
answer: This deal is worth 8.5 billion dollars (about 71 thousand crore rupees). Reliance will hold 63.16% stake and Disney will hold 36.84% stake in the company formed after the merger. Nita Ambani will be its chairperson.
5. Question: When will the Reliance Disney deal be completed?
answer: This deal is expected to close within 6 months. If the deal is completed, it will be a “big fish in the broadcasting market” with a “monopoly on cricket advertising revenues”.
Source link
[ad_3]
