Ambani-owned Reliance plans to buy more than 50% of Disney India

Talks for a merger between Disney and Reliance's media businesses in India are underway. Reliance is expected to acquire a 51-44% interest in the combined company, which is valued at USD 3.5 billion. A 9% share in the combined company may also be acquired by Bodhi Tree, a joint venture between James Murdoch and Uday Shankar, according to Reuters. In RIL's broadcast section, Bodhi Tree is a shareholder. By February, the two businesses hope to have a legally binding agreement.

Disney and Reliance, who together own 120 television channels and a sizable streaming business, have been in discussions for weeks to establish an entertainment powerhouse in India. The goal of the present deal consolidation is to create India's biggest media services behemoth in terms of OTT platforms, TV broadcasting, and cricket rights. Reliance looks to exploit Disney's extensive content portfolio integration to increase indigenous breadth, reach, and cost flexibility.

Through many years, Disney's TV and streaming operations in India has suffered as a result of a customer exodus from its digital platform due to fierce competition from Ambani's platform for cricket streaming. Due to the competition between Disney Plus and Jio Cinemas for the exclusive streaming rights to Indian cricket events, Hotstar's viewership has suffered significantly.

Nevertheless, given their combined market power and the fact that Sony and Zee were on the verge of splitting off into their own combined company in India, a Disney-Reliance merger may encounter numerous antitrust issues.

Zee Entertainment backed out of a USD 1.4 billion transaction as a result of the Zee-Sony merger falling through, which contributed to the notable decline in Disney India's valuation.