Breaking Reliance and Disney merger approved by CCI

[Aksgr]

Well it would be interesting to see whether properties like ABC, Hulu, FOX etc. transition to Jio or post merger they would exist individually under Hulu umbrella in India.

hulu is not part of deal

 

[kamathur]

hulu is not part of deal

then be ready for increase in cost, as soon Hulu will come in and bring other properties which would again mean increase in cost.

 

[Raju lal]

Well it would be interesting to see whether properties like ABC, Hulu, FOX etc. transition to Jio or post merger they would exist individually under Hulu umbrella in India.

First of all upcoming merger is applicable only for Disney's Indian assets (Star India & Hotstar). Fox, ABC, Hulu etc remain 100% Disney owned properties.
Disney want a partner to operate in India. So that this merger happen. Also Disney will hold 36% in the upcoming entity. They have to bear responsibilities in it. Therefore will they again try to build a standalone enterprise?
Atleast for a couple of years, as per the understanding between Disney & RIL, International contents of Disney will continue to stream and broadcast through upcoming company's channels & OTT.
Disney's ultimate aim is to offload Star India & Hotstar eventually (Like paramount exit from Viacom 18) and provide contents to companies as licencing deal(like HBO). So in future Disney will become completely stranger to Star. Then it's contents can be licensed to those who bid for higher amounts or those reach good understandings with Disney.

 

[Ashok Varma]

then be ready for increase in cost, as soon Hulu will come in and bring other properties which would again mean increase in cost.

No foreign OTT will survive without Indian content in India.

 

[Roleplayer]

Jio Hotstar

 

[Mylanji]

Amidst all this fiasco, everyone forgot this history :

Star TV started as an independent satellite TV channel in China in the 90s, with the help of Hutchison Whampoa (owners of the now defunct Hutch mobile network). It had two Chinese channels and other channels such as MTV (then a part of Star before Viacom/ Paramount acquired it), Star Movies, Prime Sports (now Star Sports) and Star Plus.

Thereafter it came to India in 1993 (except the Chinese channels). Rupert Murdoch acquired this (as he has the habit of doing so) and complemented it with NewsCorp's other brands such as Sky and Fox.

Now, the Star brand no longer exists in China. All it's Chinese channels (except Xing Kong) have shut down. Today some of us have a habit of shunning and boycotting Chinese products, because of diplomatic issues. But a media brand that we are so fond of had it's roots in China. It's good that Star brand no longer exists there. Or else people would've started boycotting this as well.

 

[Raju lal]

Amidst all this fiasco, everyone forgot this history :

Star TV started as an independent satellite TV channel in China in the 90s, with the help of Hutchison Whampoa (owners of the now defunct Hutch mobile network). It had two Chinese channels and other channels such as MTV (then a part of Star before Viacom/ Paramount acquired it), Star Movies, Prime Sports (now Star Sports) and Star Plus.

Thereafter it came to India in 1993 (except the Chinese channels). Rupert Murdoch acquired this (as he has the habit of doing so) and complemented it with NewsCorp's other brands such as Sky and Fox.

Now, the Star brand no longer exists in China. All it's Chinese channels (except Xing Kong) have shut down. Today some of us have a habit of shunning and boycotting Chinese products, because of diplomatic issues. But a media brand that we are so fond of had it's roots in China. It's good that Star brand no longer exists there. Or else people would've started boycotting this as well.

All this time while parents changed Star remained as a foreign company (From Hutchison to Disney). And this time its transforming to an Indian company. Star maintained its stability because everytime there was a powerful parent company in its back. But Fox is special among them growing the network higher and acquisitions from south was revolutionary. If it went to any other company then(like Disney now looks to sell) Star may not flourish as of now.

 

[dino29]

STAR shines under Uday Shankar aggressiveness, Disney realized after Uday exit, later tiesup with Ambani for local support

Buddy u r comparing media landscape of vastly different eras....yes Fox had a more risk taking attitude while making investments in TV broadcast business but as OTT craze grew not just in India but worldover Linear TV started facing tough times thus not only Fox sold Star India to Disney but various broadcasters in different countries either shut down channels or sold their channels or entered partnerships with other media companies to combat + expand in new scenario.....Disney did overpay for buying Star India and has had a more conservative approach so as to not widen losses hence u saw them not buying IPL Digital, BCCI cricket rights as bidding amount went too high and it would have lead to huge losses with it being difficult to recover such investments.....


While Star India channels are doing extremely well however sports business and OTT business need lots of money to be put in for expansion and in general foreign companies find it tough to operate on its own in india thus having an Indian Partner will help in continuing broadcast business here as well as grow across segments.

Interesting things is that the mudrochs sold their broadcast business in India and Mr. Uday Shankar too exited Disney-Star soon thereafter but later both came together a formed a company Bodhi Tree which looks for investing in media assets where growth is possible hence they ties up with Reliance / Jio and though Mr. Shankar earlier stated something like Digital is the future but now it seems they too have realised that TV Channels still hold immense importance in India so again they will be part of team which shall lead the merged entity

 

[dino29]

They are planning to close the D+HS due to app agregator/partner tieup(like Tata play binge, Airtel xstream play, ACT, Excitel, BSNL Yupp tv etc) then all D+HS content will be exclusive to Jio users from Day1 and all other network users to buy Jio cinema premium app directly

Where did u read that other App aggregators won't have access to Jio Cinema if incase Disney+Hotstar is merged into it....also until now there is no confirmation whether Disney+Hotstar will get merged into Jio Cinema or continue to operate independently.......some members asking about ABC, Hulu, Fox content being available or not on Disney+Hotstar, well since long time such content is available on the platform

 

[Ashok Varma]

Where did u read that other App aggregators won't have access to Jio Cinema if incase Disney+Hotstar is merged into it....also until now there is no confirmation whether Disney+Hotstar will get merged into Jio Cinema or continue to operate independently.......some members asking about ABC, Hulu, Fox content being available or not on Disney+Hotstar, well since long time such content is available on the platform

You can check which app agregator access to Jio cinema premium now? You can Google it for sole OTT after merger

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.business-standard.com/amp/companies/news/ril-eyes-jiocinema-as-sole-ott-platform-post-star-viacom18-merger-deal-124081900377_1.html