CCI Gives Nod To Reliance's Viacom18 and Disney's Star India Merger!

The Competition Commission of India gave the green light to the biggest merger in the Indian media industry. This merger is between, Reliance Industries Ltd, Walt Disney and Bodhi Tree Systems.

Reliance's Viacom18 is to merge with Walt Disney's Star India, giving birth to the largest film and entertainment firm in India. This merger was filed in May and approved by the CCI in August. Now, CCI has released a 48-page order, a guide to how the merger will be completed. Both parties have agreed to sell around 7 TV Channels including Hungama and Super Hungama. 

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As the parties involved have rights to host, ICC, IPL and BCCI streams, they have agreed not to raise the price of OTT and Television advertisement slots. Along with that, they won't bundle up the slots for their content.

Reliance, with a 56% stake, will have the most shares in this newly formed entity, followed by Disney, with a 37% stake. The rest of the 7% share will be with Bodhi Tree Systems. Viacom18 is valued at Rs. 33,000 crores and valuation of Star India in the market is of Rs. 26,000 crores. This makes the total value of the new merged entity with Rs. 70,352 crores. Nita Ambani is reported to be the Chairperson of the merged entity with Uday Shankar as the Vice-Chairperson.

This deal has been criticised by many from the industry and the audience. The main concern is about the media consolidation. However the merger is set to complete within the financial year of 2025.