Reliance-Disney merger likely to capture 50% of the streaming market in India

Reliance-Disney merger: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and Disney together are expected to command nearly 50 per cent of India’s streaming market. The Reliance-Disney merger is expected to pose significant challenges to competitors Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in India.

According to a report in Bloomberg that cited Comscore data, nearly half of India’s internet users consumed movies, TV shows, news and sports on streaming platforms owned by Reliance and Walt Disney, before they announced the merger to form a media giant. 

Reliance would acquire Disney’s India business to create a $8.5 billion media giant that would offer films, shows, news and sports content. 

As per the report, 46.6 per cent of the Indian market share – 243.5 million users – visited three of the platforms, Disney’s Hotstar, Reliance’s JioCinema and JioTV. Hotstar garnered over 144 million unique visitors, while JioCinema and JioTV received over 129 million visitors. 

Comscore data also shows that streaming cricket has been the magic ingredient for the success of these platforms. The Men’s Cricket World Cup drove 191 million visitors in November for Hotstar, while the coverage of the Indian Premier League worked wonders for Reliance. 

Reliance and Walt Diney signed binding definitive agreements to form a JV to combine the business of Viacom18 and Star India, the company announced last month. Mukesh Ambani will invest Rs 11,500 crore or $1.4 billion into the JV for its growth strategy. The JV has been valued at Rs 70,352 crore or $8.5 billion on a post-money basis, excluding synergies. 

The new venture will be controlled by RIL and it will own 16.34 per cent, while 46.82 per cent will be owned by Viacom18 and 36.84 per cent by Disney. Nita Ambani will be the chairperson of the merged entity and former top Disney executive Uday Shankar will be the vice chairperson.