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☆ Disney, Ambani’s Reliance create new India media giant with 750 million viewers
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Diksha Madhok | Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New Delhi/London CNN —Disney is joining forces with Asia’s richest man to create a new media giant in India that says it will reach a domestic audience of more than 750 million people. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and Disney have combined their digital streaming platforms and 100 TV channels in the country in a joint venture worth about $8.5 billion, the companies said in a statement Wednesday. Disney (DIS) made a major push into the country in 2019, when it acquired most of 21st Century Fox, including its vast Star India network. “India is the world’s most populous market, and we are excited for the opportunities that this joint venture will provide to create long-term value for the company,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger. Disney salvaging its Indian dreamDisney has faced multiple challenges in India, which boasts a vibrant media and entertainment sector.

Persons: Mukesh, ”, Mukesh Ambani, Nita M, Ambani, Viacom18, Bob Iger, Mouse, Weeks, JioCinema, Iger, “, Mihir Shah Organizations: London CNN, Disney, Reliance Industries, Century Fox, Star, Reliance, Indian Premier League, Warner Bros ., HBO, CNN, Media Partners Locations: New Delhi, London, India, Star India, Viacom18

A billboard for the Netflix film "Thar" is seen on a street in Mumbai, India, May 19, 2022. India last month introduced the new draft law to regulate the broadcasting sector that will also apply to streaming giants. Netflix and Viacom18, as well as India's Information and Broadcasting Ministry, which has proposed the law, did not respond to a request for comment. India's government says the new law and formation of content committees will help in "robust self-regulation". Top Bollywood stars feature in Indian streaming shows, some of which have faced criticism from lawmakers and the public for scenes deemed vulgar or offensive.

Persons: Francis Mascarenhas, Mukesh Ambani's Viacom18, Aditya Kalra, Munsif Vengattil, Emelia Sithole Organizations: Netflix, REUTERS, DELHI, Broadcasting Ministry, Disney, Media Partners Asia, Thomson Locations: Mumbai, India

[1/2] JioCinema and Pokemon logos are pictured in this illustration taken November 15, 2023. Pokemon has spawned a global multi-billion dollar media franchise spanning trading cards, games, TV shows and movies. In total, JioCinema will add around 3,000 hours of children's content, including movies and shows from Entertainment One, Animaccord, Cartoon Network Studios and DreamWorks, the sources said. Some Pokemon content was earlier on Voot, but the new JioCinema deal is a "much larger partnership", one of the sources said. NBCUniversal told Reuters that "kids and family programming", including DreamWorks content, was part of a multi-year partnership with JioCinema announced in May.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Mukesh Ambani, Mukesh Ambani's, Ambani, Viacom18, NBCUniversal, JioCinema, Aditya Kalra, Munsif, Miral Organizations: REUTERS, Disney, Netflix, Cartoon Network, DreamWorks, Pokemon Company, Walt Disney Co, Nintendo, Media Partners, Entertainment, Cartoon Network Studios, Reuters, Warner Bros Discovery Inc, Hollywood, Thomson Locations: DELHI, India, New Delhi, Bengaluru

☆ Disney nears deal to sell $10-bln valued India business to Reliance -Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

However, Disney may now sell a controlling stake in the business to Reliance, the Mukesh Ambani-controlled conglomerate whose streaming platform's success has weighed on the U.S. company's Indian business, Bloomberg reported. Reliance, whose broadcast venture Viacom18 runs JioCinema, values Disney's India assets, which comprises the Disney+ Hotstar streaming service and Star India, at between $7 billion and $8 billion, the report said. The enterprise value of the India business, Disney's biggest last year globally by users, was seen at around $15 billion to 16 billion when Disney took over Fox's business. The deal could be announced as early as next month, although no final decision has been made and Disney could still decide to hold onto the assets, Bloomberg reported. JioCinema has put increased pressure on Disney India and other streaming platforms, with Ambani marketing the platform by offering free access to the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, digital rights of which were earlier with Disney.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Gautam Adani, Kalanithi Maran, Mukesh Ambani, JioCinema, Ambani, OTT, Karan Taurani, Taurani, Varun Vyas, Rama Venkat, Savio D'Souza Organizations: Disney, REUTERS, Rights, Reliance Industries, Bloomberg, Reuters, Sun TV Network, Blackstone, Reliance, Star India, Disney's, Disney India, Indian Premier League cricket, Elara Securities, Thomson Locations: India, Bengaluru

☆ Disney in talks with Adani, Sun TV to sell India assets -Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Disney is exploring various possibilities, including selling some of its Indian operations or a mix of assets from the unit, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Disney, Sun TV and the Gautam Adani-controlled Adani group did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. Disney was exploring options to sell or find a joint venture partner for its India digital and TV business, Reuters reported in July. Disney has faced increasing pressure due to the emergence of Reliance Industries' (RELI.NS) streaming platform JioCinema, run by Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani. Ambani has been marketing his streaming platform by offering free access to the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, digital rights of which were earlier with Disney.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Gautam Adani, Kalanithi Maran, Gautam, Disney, Mukesh Ambani, Ambani, Navamya Ganesh, Savio D'Souza Organizations: Disney, REUTERS, Rights, Sun TV Network, Bloomberg, Sun TV, Reuters, Reliance Industries, Indian Premier League cricket, Thomson Locations: India, Bengaluru

But Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani snatched IPL rights away in a $2.9 billion bid last year, and then streamed games for free. Soon, Disney subscribers fled - out of 61 million users in October, roughly 21 million had left by July. It retains digital streaming rights but last year licensed the TV broadcast rights to Indian's Zee Entertainment (ZEE.NS) for around $1.5 billion, a source said. In the United States, ad-free Disney+ streaming service subscription rates are set to rise by 27% to $13.99 per month. By contrast in India, Disney+ Hotstar service costs $3.62 a month.

Persons: Anushree, India's Ambani Hotstar, Walt Disney, Disney, Mukesh Ambani, That's, JioCinema, Sivanandan, Daoud Jackson, Bob Iger's, Nancy Lee, Ambani, Aditya Kalra, Munsif, Dawn Chmielewski, Muralikumar Organizations: ICC Men's Cricket, REUTERS, Companies Disney India, Century Fox, Indian Premier League, Disney, Reuters, Asia, Cricket, Indian's Zee Entertainment, IPL, Blume Ventures, Hotstar, Staff, Media Partners, Netflix, JioCinema, Thomson Locations: Gurugram, India, Burbank, Disney India, United States, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Dawn, Los Angeles

☆ Fairy-tale ending will elude Disney in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Shritama Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MUMBAI, Aug 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India has lost its magic for Walt Disney (DIS.N). Even if boss Bob Iger can find a buyer or joint venture partner, a fairy-tale ending will elude the Magic Kingdom. The combination of changing viewing preferences and Disney’s own conservatism in streaming puts Disney India in a weak spot. The average monthly revenue per subscriber held steady at 59 cents, compared to $7.31 per subscriber in its domestic Disney+ business. Disney is exploring strategic options for its Star India business, including a joint venture or a sale, the Wall Street Journal reported on July 11, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Persons: Walt Disney, pare, Bob Iger, Iger, Mukesh, Ambani, JioCinema, Una Galani, Katrina Hamlin Organizations: Reuters, Fox, Kingdom, Netflix, Indian Premier League, HBO, Disney, Disney India, Walt Disney, Star India, Wall Street, Thomson Locations: MUMBAI, India, U.S, Mumbai, United States, Canada

NEW DELHI, July 27 (Reuters) - Walt Disney's (DIS.N) India streaming service plans to start enforcing a policy of allowing its premium users to login from only four devices, an effort aimed at limiting password sharing in a key market, two sources with direct knowledge said. In India, a premium account of Disney+ Hotstar streaming service still allows logins on as many as 10 devices, even though its website currently says "number of devices that can be logged in" is four. Industry data says Hotstar is market leader in terms of users with approximately 50 million. The new planned restriction will also apply to its cheaper plan which will limit usage across two devices, the second source added. Disney's Hotstar topped India's streaming market between January 2022 and March 2023 with a 38% share of viewership, while rivals Netflix and Prime Video held 5% each, data from research firm Media Partners Asia showed.

Persons: Walt Disney's, Disney's, Disney, Mukesh Ambani's JioCinema, Hotstar, Walt Disney, Aditya Kalra, Munsif Vengattil, Jane Merriman Organizations: Netflix, Disney, Media Partners, Media Partners Asia, Thomson Locations: DELHI, DIS.N, India

☆ Disney to offer free mobile streaming of cricket in India like rival JioCinema
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 9 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N) Hotstar will offer free streaming of cricket tournaments in India on mobile devices, a move similar to its top rival JioCinema, as it aims to court more users in the cricket-crazy country. Hotstar on Friday said it will offer the Asia Cup and ICC Men's Cricket World Cup tournaments at no cost to users. The company lost the streaming rights for the highly popular Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament to Reliance Industries' (RELI.NS) JioCinema earlier this year. JioCinema, which made the tournament free to watch, clocked a record 1.47 billion digital views in the first weekend of the tournament. While JioCinema is preparing to start charging users for its content, it plans to keep IPL streaming free, Jyoti Deshpande, president of Reliance's media and content business, told Bloomberg in an April Interview.

Persons: Walt Disney, Hotstar, JioCinema, Jyoti Deshpande, Munsif Vengattil, Priya Sagar, Janane Venkatraman, Jason Neely Organizations: Walt Disney Co's, Asia Cup, ICC Men's Cricket, Indian Premier League, Reliance Industries, Research, IPL, Bloomberg, Thomson Locations: India, Hotstar, New Delhi, Bengaluru

As part of India's anti-tobacco drive, the health ministry last month ordered streaming platforms to insert static health warnings during smoking scenes within three months. IAMAI asked the health ministry to revisit the "onerous" rules, saying a survey had shown viewers were indifferent to depictions of smoking on streaming platforms, the letter said. Beyond Hollywood content, streaming companies Netflix (NFLX.O), Amazon (AMZN.O), Disney (DIS.N) and JioCinema have become increasingly popular in India. Activists have welcomed India's new rules, saying it would discourage smoking in a country where tobacco kills 1.3 million people each year. All smoking and alcohol drinking scenes in movies in India's cinemas and on TV, under law, require health warnings, but there were so far no regulations for the streaming giants.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Mukesh Ambani's, IAMAI, Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine, Sanjay Seth, Seth, Aditya Kalra, William Maclean Organizations: Netflix, Disney, REUTERS, Reuters, Internet, Mobile Association of India, Health Foundation, Thomson Locations: DELHI, India

[1/2] A smartphone with the Netflix logo lies in front of displayed "Streaming service" words in this illustration taken March 24, 2020. Companies often face legal cases and police complaints their content sometimes hurt religious sentiment, and many have self-censored content over the years. As part of India's anti-tobacco drive, the health ministry this week ordered streaming platforms should within three months insert static health warnings during smoking scenes. The companies, and India's health ministry, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. But in India, companies from Netflix to Amazon (AMZN.O) to Disney (DIS.N), also have popular Hindi content which often shows Bollywood actors smoking, something activists say encourages tobacco use.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Mukesh Ambani's, Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine, Ambani's JioCinema, Kaushik Moitra, Dylan Mohan Gray, Aditya Kalra, Biplob Kumar Das, Tony Tharakan, Shilpa Jamkhandikar, David Evans Organizations: Netflix, REUTERS, Disney, Companies, Reuters, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros, Bharucha, Partners, Thomson Locations: India, DELHI, New Delhi, Bengaluru

☆ Reliance's JioCinema signs content streaming deal with NBC Universal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, May 29 (Reuters) - JioCinema, the streaming platform run by India's Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS), has signed a partnership with NBC Universal Media in a push to increase Hollywood content on the platform for Indian viewers, the companies said on Monday. The multi-year deal will give JioCinema's premium subscribers access to popular shows such as "Downton Abbey", "Suits" and "The Office," the companies said in a joint statement. This comes after JioCinema signed a content streaming deal with Warner Bros Discovery Inc (WBD.O) in April for shows such as "Succession" and "Game of Thrones". JioCinema announced its premium pricing earlier this month, moving away from free content model to fight rivals like Netflix (NFLX.O) and Disney (DIS.N) in the content streaming space. Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Hritam Mukherjee; Editing by Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

NEW DELHI, May 13 (Reuters) - Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s streaming platform JioCinema announced premium pricing of 999 Indian rupees ($12) a year, its first step to move away from a free content model to fight global rivals such as Netflix and Disney in the country. The JioCinema website on Saturday showed the new premium pricing for Hollywood content, with the much-awaited Succession series available for streaming. JioCinema has become popular for showing the IPL cricket tournament on the platform for free in the ongoing season. The new pricing, according to the website, is only for premium content, while the matches continue to stream for free. Viacom18 won the IPL digital streaming rights from 2023 to 2027 for around $2.9 billion, rights which Disney previously held.

REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/File PhotoSummarySummary Companies Reliance's JioCinema to lock horns with Netflix, DisneyWarner deal to boost English content, local content in focus tooExecutives say Warner deal will boost Reliance streaming plansJioCinema content quality key to beat rivals, analyst saysMUMBAI, April 28 (Reuters) - The video streaming business of Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest person, is likely to focus on pricing and local content following a deal with Warner Bros as it seeks to challenge the likes of Disney and Netflix, industry sources said. While Netflix and other rivals boast of content specially created for the India audience, JioCinema's current free offerings largely include old Hindi and local language movies. The big challenge is lack of fresh local and global content on JioCinema, something that will be become even more critical as the IPL season ends next month. They have also diversified into regional local language content. The only way to scale up is to really differentiate your content and make sure execution is right," he said.

☆ Exclusive: Reliance JV Viacom18 strikes deal with Warner for streaming content-sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Aditya Kalra | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, April 27 (Reuters) - The broadcast venture of India's Reliance (RELI.NS) has struck a deal with Warner Bros Discovery Inc. (WBD.O) for its streaming platform JioCinema, a big push into bringing popular Hollywood content on the platform, two sources with direct knowledge said. The first source said the partnership will be exclusive and see most of Warner's marquee content on the JioCinema platform. "It's a deep exclusive arrangement which will make JioCinema the house of Warner, HBO in India," said the person. The content deal could bring in thousands of hours of streaming content onto JioCinema, which has become popular for streaming the IPL cricket tournament on the platform for free in the ongoing season. Viacom18 won the IPL digital streaming rights from 2023 to 2027 for around $2.9 billion, rights which Disney previously held.

☆ James Murdoch's Bodhi Tree slashes planned investment in Reliance JV Viacom18
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BENGALURU, April 14 (Reuters) - Bodhi Tree, a joint venture between James Murdoch and a former Star India executive, has reduced its planned investment in Reliance's (RELI.NS) broadcast venture Viacom18 by 70% and will now pump in 43.06 billion rupees ($527.84 million), Viacom18 said late on Thursday. Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries had said in April last year that Qatar Investment Authority-backed Bodhi Tree would spend 135 billion rupees out of a planned 151.45 billion rupees investment in the media behemoth that is also backed by Paramount Global (PARA.O). Reliance is now leading the investment with a 108.39 billion rupees infusion. A source familiar with the matter said the investment amount was reduced due to a broader funding squeeze amid a slowdown in dealmaking. Reliance, which is expanding in every sector from retail to ecommerce, made its big splash in the Indian streaming space last year, with its acquisition of digital streaming rights for the Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament from 2023 to 2027.

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