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Reliance-backed Viacom18 has reached an agreement to buy 60% of Disney\u2019s India unit, WSJ reported Thursday citing unnamed sources, creating a pathway for the Indian conglomerate to form a $10 billion media giant in the South Asian market.<\/p>\n
The deal, which WSJ says will close this month, values Disney\u2019s India unit at $3.9 billion, the report said, less than half of what Disney had originally hoped<\/a>. Earlier this week, Reliance declined to comment on its engagement with Disney.<\/p>\n Viacom18 is a joint venture among Mukesh Ambani\u2019s Reliance Industries, Paramount Global and James Murdoch\u2019s Bodhi Tree Systems. According to the agreement, Disney will retain 40% ownership in its India unit, whereas Reliance will acquire a 51% stake and Bodhi Tree will hold 9%, the report said.<\/p>\n In 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox\u2019s entertainment assets for $71.3 billion, a move significantly bolstered by the inclusion of Star India.<\/p>\n The deal was integral to Disney\u2019s global streaming expansion, handing it broadcast and streaming rights to the Indian Premier League cricket matches, a multitude of multilingual TV channels and an interest in a Bollywood film production company. At the time of acquisition, Star\u2019s Hotstar had amassed about 150 million monthly active users.<\/p>\n While Hotstar dominated the Indian video streaming landscape for several more quarters,\u00a0things have tapered off since as Reliance-backed Viacom18 has grown in popularity after securing the five-year rights to stream IPL cricket matches\u00a0for about $3 billion<\/a>. Disney paid $3 billion for the same five-year rights, but for broadcasting the content on TV.<\/p>\n Reliance has poached many top leaders and engineering talent to ramp up JioCinema in the last year, and has populated the on-demand streaming service with premium content from HBO and NBC.<\/p>\n The merger with Viacom18 reunites Rupert Murdoch\u2019s son James and former Star India CEO Uday Shankar with a business they spent years building. Murdoch helped grow Star India when he was chairman of its former parent Sky, then part of Fox. Shankar led Star India for a decade until 2020.<\/p>\n Shankar and Murdoch, who previously launched a fund called Lupa, formed Bodhi Tree in 2021 with a $1.7 billion backing from\u00a0Qatar Investment Authority. Bodhi Tree initially agreed to invest $1.78 billion in Viacom18<\/a>, but later cut the size of the investment to about $528 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n