New Delhi: The merger of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Disney's Indian media assets worth Rs 70,350 crore ($8.5 billion) was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Wednesday. The mentioned approval may require specific voluntary adjustments. In a X (formerly Twitter) post, the fair trade regulator declared its approval of the proposed merger of Reliance Industries Ltd, Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd, Digital18 Media Ltd, Star India Pvt Ltd and Star Television Productions Ltd, pending the fulfillment of voluntary changes.
In the agreement, RIL and its associated companies will own 63.16 percent of the merged company, which will include two streaming platforms and 120 TV channels. Walt Disney will retain the remaining 36.84 per cent ownership. Currently one of India's leading streaming services with over 500 million downloads on Google Play Store is Disney+ Hotstar, owned by Walt Disney's Star India. However, JioCinema, a subsidiary of Viacom18 (owned by RIL), has accumulated more than 100 million downloads.
Although there is a distinction, RIL thinks that operating two distinct platforms would be costlier and less effective. Through combining them, RIL has the potential to create a stronger streaming service capable of rivaling YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.
In the past, RIL integrated platforms like Voot into JioCinema. JioCinema was recently transferred to Viacom18 through a court-approved agreement, which also included a Rs 15,145 crore investment from RIL and Bodhi Tree Systems in Viacom18. The approval from CCI was granted one day prior to RIL's 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM). The information was received today after the market closed. RIL shares closed down 0.16 pc at Rs 2,995.75 earlier in the day
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