According to a report, Reliance is edging closer to a deal to purchase Disney’s business in India, as the oil-to-telecom conglomerate led by Mukesh Ambani aims to expand its digital and television assets. Disney values its Indian business at approximately $10 billion, while Reliance assesses the assets to be worth between $7 billion and $8 billion, as reported by Bloomberg News on Monday. The report suggests that an announcement regarding the deal could be made as early as next month.
Reliance had previously stated that it consistently evaluates properties for potential acquisitions. In 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets for $71.3 billion, a move that was greatly strengthened by the inclusion of Star India. This acquisition was pivotal to Disney’s global expansion in streaming, granting it broadcast and streaming rights to the Indian Premier League cricket matches, a wide array of multilingual TV channels, and an interest in a Bollywood film production company. At the time of the acquisition, Star’s Hotstar platform had garnered approximately 150 million monthly active users.
Hotstar remained the dominant player in the Indian video streaming market for several more quarters. However, its popularity waned as Reliance-backed Viacom18 gained prominence after securing the five-year streaming rights for IPL cricket matches for around $3 billion. Disney had also paid $3 billion for the same five-year rights but for broadcasting the content on television.
Over the past year, Reliance has aggressively recruited top executives and engineering talent to enhance JioCinema and has enriched the on-demand streaming service with premium content from HBO and NBC.
Disney’s Hotstar, which has lost approximately 20 million subscribers this year as consumers migrated to JioCinema to watch IPL matches, is currently offering free mobile streaming of the ongoing cricket World Cup in an effort to regain customers. It recently set a new global on-demand video streaming record by attracting 35 million concurrent viewers to a cricket match on its Disney streaming app. This record was surpassed during a game between India and New Zealand when concurrent viewers reached 43 million.
