India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has just made his mark on the entertainment industry. His company, Reliance Industries, has officially joined forces with Walt Disney to form a new powerhouse called JioStar. This massive $8. 5 billion deal brings together the best of both worlds: Viacom18's media and JioCinema's streaming services.

Regulators gave the green light for this merger, which now creates a company with over 100 TV channels and two streaming services. This means Indian viewers will have access to a whopping 30, 000 Disney content assets and can potentially reach up to 750 million viewers across the country.

Ambani is excited about this transformation, believing that the combination of Reliance's understanding of Indian consumers and Disney's creative expertise will offer unparalleled content choices at affordable prices. Reliance has invested a hefty 115 billion rupees ($1. 3 billion) to support this growth.

Disney's CEO, Robert Iger, is also thrilled about the deal. He sees it as a way to expand Disney's presence in the Indian market, providing viewers with an even more robust portfolio of entertainment and sports content.

JioStar is already making a splash with combined revenues of 260 billion rupees for the fiscal year ending March 2024. Its TV channels churn out over 30, 000 hours of content annually, and the JioCinema and Hotstar platforms have over 50 million subscribers. Plus, they hold the highly coveted cricket rights, which is a big deal in India.

In a separate move, Reliance has also acquired Paramount Global's 13% stake in Viacom18 Media for 42. 8 billion rupees, boosting its stake to 70. 5%. Bodhi Tree Systems, backed by media mogul James Murdoch, also has a stake in Viacom18.

Uday Shankar, cofounder of Bodhi Tree, sees this merger as a chance to better serve diverse groups of consumers in the integrated TV-digital ecosystem.

Reliance has diverse interests beyond media, including oil, gas, petrochemicals, retail, and telecommunications. The company reported a net profit of $9. 5 billion on consolidated revenue of $119 billion in the year to March 2024. Ambani topped Forbes Asia's list of India's 100 Richest with a net worth of $119. 5 billion.

Reliance and Disney Merge to Create India's Biggest Entertainment Group

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