Breaking CCI Released Detailed Notification on Viacom - Star Merger

[Mylanji]

The document itself, on the basis of which this discussion is taking place for the past few days, is questionable. Firstly, a public domain document (as per my knowledge) shouldn't conceal certain information unless it is extremely confidential. But here they've concealed certain portions and points of the document, which raises questions that something is wrong here.

 

[Raju lal]

Why r u being so pessimistic bro?

Buddy firstly there is a reason why Disney decided bot to exit India broadcast business (Star India) and have a JV with Reliance as it helps them expand business in more efficient manner + having a local partner helps in various other ways...... Worldover broadcasters r shutting down channels or selling the broadcast business and Disney too did so in various territories but India is a unique market where Traditional Linear TV still holds great growth potential .

Disney thru its partnership with Reliance will have a good positive outcome across different fronts as in a media landscape where contents costs r soaring high while ad revenues and even subscription revenues have remained low or should i say not kept pace with content or other expenditures needed to grow business bcoz of various factors including shift of spending budget of brands towards OTT and limited increase possible in ad slot rates hence coming together of 2 Big Companies will help address this issue thereby dividing the financial burden and gain an edge in a highly competitive + challenging scenario so as to deliver good growth

Regarding exits, many people have exited Viacom18 too so it is not as if only Disney Star has witnessed the same......Also when Disney tookover Star India they had a very small presence in Indian TV Industry hence u saw most of Star India team continue and fewer exits but at that time too many people holding high designation exited.....right now Viacom18 is a well established and bigger company and above all Reliance is its majority stakeholder which is one of thde biggest company in India and will hold larger share in JV with Disney-Star so there is well balanced approach from both sides as far as integration of staff is concerned, Disney-Star surely holds big lead as far as success and size of the network is concerned and u will see many of their team members continue in merged entity too but with Reliance being majority stakeholder they too will have people fr their side holding key positions be it in the board or team.

There will no downfall or negative impact, infact lot of good things r expected once the merged entity starts functioning as a unit

Not everyone should think the same brother! I have shared my thoughts. Disney, like other multinational companies, faced a global recession. To overcome this, As per Bob Iger's decision to focus on the core businesses and sell other and unprofitable businesses started. That is the root cause of this Jv. At first Disney decided to sell Star in whole or in part. But no one came forward or offered an expected money to take over such a big company. What Disney wants now is to distribute their English content in India smoothly but without any additional efforts. And doing movie production and merchandise on the side. Like you say this deal is not happened by Disney 's dream for Star's bright future. If Reliance is willing to pay the full amount that Disney is asking then Disney will say goodbye to this JV at that moment.
In 2019, Disney had a different strategy. They aimed to grow Star thereby Disney Plus and expand widely across Indian entertainment space. So that they announced dozens of series including Mahabharata.But the wind is always changing. Later, Disney faced huge losses in America. Meanwhile, Star and Hotstar suffered losses due to sports in India. Bob Chapek, the CEO, was replaced by the old CEO Bob Iger. The strategy has changed. Tough decisions came. Now they are thinking that even if STAR is profitable anymore, it will be a small amount if converted to dollars. Such a large company in India contributes a small percentage to their balance sheet in America. So slowly leave from responsibilities. That is happening now. Note that while Disney is in a strategy rethinking mood( Move forward with Star or not) Ambani introduced Jio Cinema & Sports 18 in major sports & streaming space. Then they assured its very tough to survive and finalised decision to offload Star.

 

[dino29]

Not everyone should think the same brother! I have shared my thoughts. Disney, like other multinational companies, faced a global recession. To overcome this, As per Bob Iger's decision to focus on the core businesses and sell other and unprofitable businesses started. That is the root cause of this Jv. At first Disney decided to sell Star in whole or in part. But no one came forward or offered an expected money to take over such a big company. What Disney wants now is to distribute their English content in India smoothly but without any additional efforts. And doing movie production and merchandise on the side. Like you say this deal is not happened by Disney 's dream for Star's bright future. If Reliance is willing to pay the full amount that Disney is asking then Disney will say goodbye to this JV at that moment.
In 2019, Disney had a different strategy. They aimed to grow Star thereby Disney Plus and expand widely across Indian entertainment space. So that they announced dozens of series including Mahabharata.But the wind is always changing. Later, Disney faced huge losses in America. Meanwhile, Star and Hotstar suffered losses due to sports in India. Bob Chapek, the CEO, was replaced by the old CEO Bob Iger. The strategy has changed. Tough decisions came. Now they are thinking that even if STAR is profitable anymore, it will be a small amount if converted to dollars. Such a large company in India contributes a small percentage to their balance sheet in America. So slowly leave from responsibilities. That is happening now. Note that while Disney is in a strategy rethinking mood( Move forward with Star or not) Ambani introduced Jio Cinema & Sports 18 in major sports & streaming space. Then they assured its very tough to survive and finalised decision to offload Star.

Disney did not want to sell entire Star India business as they always knew and maintained that Linear TV + OTT has huge growth potential in India and Star India already is running very succesful TV + OTT business, certain sub areas within it like Sports business creates losses as content rights cost is extremely high as compared to returns hence to address such issues and other difficulties they were looking for a Joint Venture to expand business and reduce these losses....


I never said that Disney does not look at Star India having future growth, infact i habe mentioned that they r very optimistic about growth and want to continue to stay in India operating its large bouquet of channels, OTT, Film, Merchandise and other business....having a local partner helps boost the growth rate.

Disney never slowed down on its investment in India business, infact all their channels are spending heavily on content, marketing etc.....all they did was cut on sports rights where returns to investment is tough but there too they acquired various other sporting properties to expand the portfolio.....Disney will not offload pr entirely sell Star India atleast for next 5 or 6 years