CCI clears mega-deal involving merger of media assets of RIL and Walt Disney
New Delhi, Aug 28: The Competition Commission of India on Wednesday approved the merger of the media assets of Reliance Industries and Walt Disney Co to create the country's largest media empire worth over Rs 70,000 crore.
The deal, announced six months ago, faced scrutiny by the anti-trust regulator and the approval has come after the parties proposed certain modifications to the original transaction structure.
In a post on X, the regulator said it has cleared the "proposed combination involving Reliance Industries Limited, Viacom18 Media Private Limited, Digital18 Media Limited, Star India Private Limited and Star Television Productions Limited, subject to the compliance of voluntary modifications".
The Competition Commission of India (CCI), however, did not disclose voluntary modifications in the original deal made by the two parties.
Under the deal, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and its affiliates will hold 63.16 per cent of the combined entity that will house two streaming services and 120 television channels.
Walt Disney will hold the remaining 36.84 per cent stake in the combined entity, which will also be India's largest media house.
Reliance Industries has also agreed to invest close to Rs 11,500 crore into the joint venture to give it the muscle to fight rivals like Japan's Sony and Netflix.
Nita Ambani, wife of billionaire and Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani, will head the joint venture, while Uday Shankar will be the vice chairperson.
Shankar is a former top Disney executive and has a joint venture with James Murdoch called Bodhi Tree.
CCI had raised various queries related to the deal, particularly with respect to the proposed combined entity's cricket broadcasting rights and OTT presence amid anti-competitive concerns.
As per regulations, CCI has to pass a prima facie order within 30 calendar days of the merger being notified to the regulator. However, it has the power to conduct an in-depth inquiry to ascertain possible anti-competitive issues, and in that case, there will be a wider public consultation.
Merger activities in the fast-growing and highly competitive media and entertainment space are slowly gaining pace amid a consolidation trend to stay financially healthy.
Earlier this year, the much-hyped merger involving Sony and Zee failed due to multiple issues, and on Tuesday, the two companies announced that the dispute between them had been settled amicably.
Media ventures of Reliance are currently housed in Network 18, which owns TV18 news channels as well as a plethora of entertainment (under the 'Colors' brand) and sports channels. NW18 also has stakes in moneycontrol.com, and bookmyshow and publishes magazines.
Its subsidiary NW18 owns the news channels CNBC/CNNNews.
Reliance separately owns a movie production arm - JioStudios, and majority stakes in two listed cable distribution companies Den and Hathway.
Disney + Hotstar was launched in India in 2020, post the acquisition of the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox at a valuation of USD 71.3 billion, thereby taking over the operations of Star India and Hotstar. It housed entertainment and cinema channels, such as StarPlus and StarGold as well as sports channels like Star Sports.
While Disney + Hotstar rapidly increased their subscriber base initially with the streaming rights of cricket matches (IPL, World Cup), it lost the bid for the digital streaming rights in the 2023-27 cycle, which was won by Reliance-backed Viacom18 for USD 720 billion, 12.92 per cent higher than what Star India had paid on an average per match value.
C-2024/05/1155 Commission approves the proposed combination involving Reliance Industries Limited, Viacom18 Media Private Limited, Digital18 Media Limited, Star India Private Limited and Star Television Productions Limited, subject to the compliance of voluntary modifications. pic.twitter.com/S2JVzw2VgR
— CCI (@CCI_India) August 28, 2024
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
