Rs 70,352 cr JioStar behemoth – Heralding a new era in India’s entertainment industry

With over 100 TV channels producing 30,000+ hours of TV entertainment content annually and an aggregate subscription base of over 50 million, the long-in-the-making merger of the media and JioCinema businesses of Viacom18 into Star India Private Limited (SIPL) has become effective, after receiving the approval from the NCLT Mumbai, Competition Commission of India and other regulatory authorities.

Reliance Industries, Viacom 18 Media, and The Walt Disney Company made this announcement yesterday (November 14, 2024), thus heralding the birth of a media joint venture behemoth that is valued at Rs 70,352 crore (~US$ 8.5 billion). At the closing of the transactions, the JV is controlled by RIL and owned 16.34% by RIL, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney. RIL has invested Rs 11,500 crore (~US$ 1.4 billion) into the JV for its growth.

To be christened JioStar, the JV is home the combination of ‘Star’ and ‘Colors’ on the television side and ‘JioCinema’ and ‘Hotstar’ on the digital front.

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Post-merger Star India to be spearheaded by CEOs Kevin Vaz, Kiran Mani, Sanjog Gupta

The JV will be one of the largest Media & Entertainment companies in India with pro forma combined revenue of approximately Rs 26,000 crore (~US$ 3.1 billion) for the fiscal year ended in March 2024. The JV operates over 100 TV channels and produces 30,000+ hours of TV entertainment content annually. The JioCinema and Hotstar digital platforms have an aggregate subscription base of over 50 million. The JV holds a portfolio of sports rights across cricket, football and other sports.

The Leadership Team

Nita M Ambani will be the Chairperson of the JV, with Uday Shankar as Vice Chairperson. The troika of CEOs will spearhead the JV’s operations:

Kevin Vaz will head the entertainment organisation across platforms.

Kiran Mani will take charge of the combined digital organization.

Sanjog Gupta will lead the combined sports organisation.

Other senior executives at the helm of the joint venture’s operations include:

Ajit Varghese – Head of Revenue, Entertainment & International

Dhruv Dhawan – Head of Digital Growth

Sushant Sreeram – Head of Marketing

Alok Jain – Head of Cluster, Entertainment (Colors, Digital Hindi, Niche, Movies and Studio)

Sumanta Bose – Head of Cluster, Entertainment (Star Plus and Bharat, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati)

Krishnan Kutty – Head of Cluster, Entertainment (South)

Ishan Chatterjee – Head of Business, Sports Revenue, SMB & Creator

George Cherian – Head of Corporate Communications & PR

Sandeep Jain – Head of Commercial

Piyush Goyal – Head of TV Distribution

Hursh Shrivastava – Head of Partnerships

Bharath Ram – Head of Product

Akash Saxena – Head of Technology

Shoury Bharadwaj – Head of Engineering

Vijay Seshadri – Chief Architect

Rishi Gaind – Head of Human Resources

Ambuj Kashyap – Will work directly with Uday Shankar and partner with CEOs on strategic and business initiatives.

Rasesh Upadhyay – Will work directly with Kevin Vaz to drive Entertainment business strategy and operations.

Gaurav Gokhale – Will work directly with Kiran Mani to drive Digital business strategy and operations.

Impact on the M&E industry

The formation of this joint venture is expected to herald a new era in India’s entertainment industry, being one of the largest Media & Entertainment companies in India. This unique joint venture of Reliance and Disney brings together the companies’ content creation and curation prowess, world-class digital streaming capabilities along with a digital first approach that will help the JV deliver unparallelled content choices at affordable prices to Indian viewers and the Indian diaspora globally.

Also read:

Reliance-Disney merger: An indepth analysis of what it means for the Indian M&E landscape

Reliance-Disney merger to command 40-45% of the TV market: Harsha Razdan

Shifting tides: The impact of Disney-Reliance merger on IPL advertising landscape

Reliance Disney Merger: A Game Changer with Concerns

In an earlier interaction with Adgully, Harsha Razdan, CEO, South Asia, dentsu, had called the Reliance-Disney merger a game-changer for India’s media industry. He said, “We’re witnessing the creation of the largest media conglomerate in the country, with a staggering valuation of $8.5 billion. This merger is set to command around 40-45% of the TV market and 30-35% of the digital space – a scale that’s unprecedented.”

He further said, “From an advertiser’s perspective, this isn’t just consolidation; it’s a strategic realignment of the industry’s landscape. With Reliance’s distribution prowess and Disney's rich content portfolio, we’re likely to see more streamlined operations and possibly even reduced subscription costs for consumers due to improved efficiencies. Advertisers now have a one-stop shop for everything from Hindi and regional entertainment to sports, music, and international content.”

The merger could reshape market share significantly, potentially surpassing 30%, believed Rajat Bansod and Vishal Dhikale of Avalon Consulting. With its large user base and content library, the combined entity’s dominance may bring both positive and negative outcomes.

“The merger would form a content giant with a vast library of Indian and international titles. The consolidation might lead to streamlining of content across platforms, reducing the need for multiple subscriptions and making content discovery easier for viewers,” they added.

At the same time, they also voiced concerns on whether the reduced competition would lead to a monopoly situation.

Experts also predict a 20-25% increase in advertising rates due to the merger’s enhanced bargaining power. With projected advertising revenue of $28.3 billion by 2025, the merged entity could significantly influence industry-wide ad rates.

Speaking on this, Razdan remarked, “While some may worry about rising ad rates, this is an opportunity for smarter, more targeted ad spends and a unique chance to integrate marketing plans across TV and digital platforms for greater impact and efficiency. The sheer reach and diversity of this new entity mean that advertisers can now connect with audiences on an even larger scale, across multiple platforms.”