MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries and Walt Disney will merge their Indian television and streaming media assets on Wednesday, creating an $8.5 billion powerhouse in the world's most populous country. announced that they would be founding a company.
The combined entity will have 120 TV channels and two streaming platforms, making it far larger than rivals such as Japan's Sony, Netflix and India's Zee Entertainment in the country's $28 billion media and entertainment sector. becomes larger.
Together, Reliance and Disney will reach more than 750 million viewers across India and cater to the Indian diaspora around the world.
The breakdown of their assets is as follows:
tv set
* Viacom 18, majority owned by Reliance, has 40 television channels including Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV.
* Well-known in India, Disney Star has around 80 channels and the brand is also known for Hindi family dramas and Hollywood movies.
* Both companies' channels span general entertainment, sports, children's television, documentaries and lifestyle programming. It also covers programming in several regional languages.
* Viacom18 holds the television rights to domestic and international cricket matches run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Disney holds the television rights to the popular Indian Premier League (IPL) until 2027.
streaming
* Reliance's JioCinema and Disney's Hotstar have a combined library of more than 200,000 hours of content, including TV dramas, movies, and sporting events.
* Disney's Hotstar was the second most downloaded video streaming app in India in 2022 after MX Player, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and EY.
*Disney streaming content includes global blockbusters, Marvel Universe movies, and National Geographic documentaries. It streamed seven of the top 15 most-watched original shows in India in 2022, according to a report by media consulting firm Ormax.
* Disney holds the digital rights to International Cricket Council matches in India until 2027, and Ambani's JioCinema now holds the streaming rights to the IPL until 2027 after outselling Disney.
* JioCinema last year signed a deal with The Pokémon Company to stream content and a deal with Warner Bros. to bring more Hollywood and international content to its platform.
(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya and Sriram Mani; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)