Whenever the word 'media mogul' is mentioned in the world, the first name that comes to people's mind is News Corporation Chief Rupert Murdoch. But soon this title is going to belong to India's biggest industrialist Mukesh Ambani. He has now become the 'media mogul' of India. The reason for this is that now all the hurdles in buying Star India from Disney have been removed.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has given almost final approval to Reliance Industries to buy the business of Star India from Disney with certain conditions of maintaining the ad tariff besides selling 7 channels like Hungama. It is from here that Mukesh Ambani's journey of becoming a media mogul begins.
Reliance Industries' deal with Disney to buy Star India's operations is big in many ways. The biggest thing is that the size of this deal is around Rs 70,000 crore. Not only this, this deal will merge big media networks like 'Viacom 18' and 'Star India'. Together, these two groups currently run Star Plus, Star Bharat, Star Utsav and Star Sports as well as big channels and media houses like Colors, Colors Rishta, News18 and CNBC.
The new company formed after the merger of Viacom 18 and Star India will have about 120 TV channels and 2 OTT platforms. However, there is a possibility that OTT platforms like Jio Cinema will be merged with Disney + Hotstar. The reason for this is also valid. Jio Cinema's app also has more than 50 crore downloads on Google Play Store. Whereas the number of downloads of Jio Cinema is only 10 crores. Not only this, Disney + Hotstar has 3.55 crore paid subscribers.
After this deal, not only a large part of the country's entertainment and news content will be in the hands of Reliance Industries. In fact, it will also be the largest group having broadcasting rights of sports in the country. Jio Cinema has the digital rights of IPL, while Star Sports Network has the TV rights. Whereas the rights of ICC cricket matches are also with Star Sports. Apart from this, the broadcasting and digital rights of football and many other sports events will be with this company.
