Reliance Industries—controlled by India’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani—and Walt Disney Co. have completed merging their Indian media assets, creating India’s largest entertainment company valued at $8.5 billion.
Regulators on Thursday approved the merger of Viacom18’s media and JioCinema businesses into Star India, which would have more than 100 television channels and two streaming services. The deal, which was first announced in February, would give the merged entity, dubbed JioStar, access to over 30,000 Disney content assets and about 750 million viewers across India.
“With the formation of this JV, the Indian media and entertainment industry is entering a transformational era,” Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries said in a statement. “Our deep creative expertise and relationship with Disney, along with our unmatched understanding of the Indian consumer will ensure unparalleled content choices at affordable prices for Indian viewers.”
Reliance said it has invested 115 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) to support the growth of the media giant. It holds a 16.3% direct stake in the joint venture and an additional 46.8% stake through Viacom18, giving it majority control, while Disney holds the rest.
“By joining forces with Reliance, we are able to expand our presence in this important media market and deliver viewers an even more robuist portfolio of entertainment, sports content and digital services,” Robert Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Co., said in the statement.
The joint venture has a pro forma combined revenue of 260 billion rupees for the fiscal year ending March 2024. Its TV channels produce over 30,000 hours of content annually, while the JioCinema and Hotstar digital platforms have an aggregate subscriber base exceeding 50 million. The JV also holds the rights to cricket, which is an immensely popular sport in India.
Separately, Reliance said it has also completed the acquisition of Paramount Global’s 13% stake in Viacom 18 Media for 42.8 billion rupees, raising its stake in Viacom 18 Media to 70.5% from 57.5%. Bodhi Tree Systems—which bis backed by tycoon James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch—also holds a stake in Viacom 18.
“As media consumption continues to move to an integrated TV-digital ecosystem, the merger of Viacom18 and Star India offers a unique opportunity to reorient the industry to better serve diverse cohorts of consumers across the country,” Uday Shankar, cofounder of Bodhi Tree, said.
Besides its media assets, Reliance has interests in spanning oil and gas, petrochemicals, retail and telecommunications. It posted a net profit of $9.5 billion on consolidated revenue of $119 billion in the year to March 2024. Mukesh Ambani ranked first with a net worth of $119.5 billion on Forbes Asia‘s list of India’s 100 Richest released in October.
