Reliance Industries Limited and Walt Disney announced a merger in February this year. This merger, if approved by the authorities will create India's largest media company with 120 TV channels and two streaming services including Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema. Both companies have reportedly assured CCI (Competition Commission of India) that their merger will not affect the advertisers. Walt Disney has the TV rights for IPL and international cricket matches of India in select regions while JioCinema has the rights for the digital streaming of the IPL and home cricket matches.
As per Reuters, both companies have communicated to the CCI that they acquired these cricket rights separately via an auction which was competitive. Further, in the future, other companies will again get a right to bid for these rights to maintain a level playing field. CCI is currently reviewing the submission from Walt Disney and Reliance Industries.
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It can take up to several weeks for the clearance to come from CCI. The merger will allow both companies to share resources and target customers at a deeper level in the country. JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar are two of the largest OTT (over-the-top) platforms in the country with a growing customer base for the former.
JioCinema also announced a yearly subscription recently starting at Rs 299 (introductory price) and will be Rs 599 from the second year. It is more affordable than most of the OTT services present in the country.
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Some of the advertisers are worried that all of the cricket broadcasted in India will be in control of a single entity and that could hurt their business. However, Reliance and Disney have said that Indians consume cricket on several other platforms such as Meta and YouTube along with other social media platforms such as X. Thus advertisers will always have more places to spend their money on.
