Walt Disney has struck a deal to sell its stake in Tata Play, valuing Indian conglomerate Tata Group’s satellite TV provider at about $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, May 22,2024, citing people familiar with the matter.

Also read: Reliance, Disney sign binding pact to combine media businesses in India

The stake sale news comes as the U.S.-based media giant looks to focus on its merger with India’s top conglomerate, Reliance Industries, in a bid to create an $8.5 billion entertainment juggernaut far ahead of rivals in the world’s most populous nation.

Last month, Tata Sons, the holding company of India’s Tata Group, increased its stake in Tata Play to 70% by buying a 10% stake from Singapore state investment firm Temasek for about $100 million, local media had reported.

With Temasek’s exit, Tata Play operates as a 70:30 joint venture between Tata and Disney. The change in the ratio of joint venture shareholding post the stake sale news are not mentioned in the Bloomberg report.

Disney and Tata Group did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Disney took its stake in Tata Play from the acquisition of Star India via the purchase of 21st Century Fox’s India assets in 2017.

A man walks past a Reliance Industries Limited signboard in Gandhinagar.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The Reliance Industries Ltd. on Thursday, March 14, 2024, informed stock exchanges that it had agreed to acquire 13.01% equity stake (on a fully diluted basis) of Viacom 18 Media Private Ltd. from two subsidiaries of Paramount Global for an aggregate consideration of ₹4,286 crore.

Viacom18 is a material subsidiary of TV18 Broadcast Ltd. and RIL currently holds Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares of Viacom18 representing 57.48%equity stake (on a fully diluted basis).

Post the completion of this transaction, RIL’s stake in Viacom18 will increase to 70.49% (on a fully diluted basis), it said in the filing.

The transaction is aimed at facilitating RIL’s merger of its media businesses with that of Walt Disney’s in India.

Reliance has agreed to invest around ₹11,500 crore in the joint venture to grow the OTT business.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Walt Disney Co and Reliance Industries on February 28 announced signing of binding pacts to merge their media operations in India to create a ₹70,000 crore behemoth.

Reliance and its affiliates will hold 63.16% in the combined entity while Disney will hold the remaining 36.84%, the companies said in a statement.

Reliance has also agreed to invest around ₹11,500 crore in the joint venture to grow the OTT business.

Nita Ambani, wife of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, will head the joint venture while Uday Shankar will be the vice chairperson.

If the negotiations are successful, it would be the first collaboration between the Tata group and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Indian oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries is in talks to buy a 29.8% stake in subscription-based satellite TV and video streaming service provider Tata Play from Walt Disney, Business Standard reported, citing sources close to the development.

If the negotiations are successful, it would be the first collaboration between the Tata group and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate, allowing Reliance to offer its complete JioCinema content into Tata Play’s offerings for its customers, the report added.

Reliance and Disney did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment, while a spokesperson for Tata Play declined to comment.

Earlier, it was reported that Reliance is close to merging its India media business with Disney with a 51%-54% stake. The deal values the U.S. giant’s Indian operations at $3.5 billion

Bodhi Tree, a joint venture between James Murdoch and former top Disney executive, Uday Shankar, is also set to take a stake of around 9% in the new merged entity. Disney will hold around 40%.

Tata Sons, the parent company of the Tata Group, currently owns a majority stake of 50.2% in Tata Play. Apart from Disney, the remaining shares are held by Singapore state investment firm Temasek, the report added.