Breaking Reliance and Disney merger approved by CCI

[vasanth]

There are several reasons why I call Zee and Sony underdogs in front of Star and Viacom18, even though they are big broadcasters.

• Zee has been in poor financial health for a long time and has faced pressure from its investors. Especially after the failure of the Sony merger, P. Goenka has been in the line of fire because of his unscrupulous dealings.
• Zee has no presence in sports (except some leagues like ILT20) and Sony’s presence is confined to only a few cricket bilateral series and mostly non-cricket properties.
• Zee is fairly strong in the Hindi movies department but Sony is only moderate, neither strong nor weak. The opposite is true for Hindi GECs where Sony Sab brings in the ratings and SET is known mainly for non-fiction properties. But neither is anywhere close to Star Plus or Dangal in the ratings chart.
• In terms of regional channels, Sony has only Sony Aath and Sony Marathi whereas Zee has the maximum presence of any Indian broadcaster. However, in terms of ratings, only Zee Kannada is a leader whereas Star is leading in most other regional markets except Tamil (Sun TV), Odia (Tarang) and Gujarati (Viacom18 monopoly). Punjabi and Assamese are not counted.

If Zee and Sony’s merger did not fail, they would have been better equipped together to take on the financial might of Disney on the one side and Ambani + Bodhi Tree on the other. But now Disney and Ambani are coming together and will practically monopolise the entire entertainment sector, and sports in particular, above all cricket. Hence Zee and Sony are even more of underdogs after the Star/Viacom18 merger.

Exactly i agree with your pin point now we wait and see how sony will survive on this gaint tide. Monopoly is not good for media.

 

[johnrambho]

End game for sports rights and monopoly of rights by one company is dangerous to game ,hope sony and other companies should joint production or make arrangements with prasar bharati to overcome the threat

 

[johnrambho]

Disney was looking to sell there rights of icc championship ,now does there plans drops or complete rights will be with viacom18 , ?

 

[Sparker0i]

They cant use viacom name nor Disney name , as none of the parent company hold more than 40% share

Even Ambani knows Hotstar is way superior than JioCinema.
Hotstar will stay, the name will change, either to JioCinema or something on the lines of JioStar or JioHotstar

 

[DisneyStarViacomMergerFan]

I think star channel logos may be changed

 

[JollyLNB]

The bigger question to me is what will happen to History TV18? Will it finally be brought under the new Disney/Reliance umbrella or continue to be separate? I think it’s a no-brainer to bring History TV18 along, to complement Nat Geo (Wild) and Star Life, although some of those may be closed or sold. A+E Networks is partly owned by The Walt Disney Company anyway, so this seems logical.

 

[SarFa]

The bigger question to me is what will happen to History TV18? Will it finally be brought under the new Disney/Reliance umbrella or continue to be separate? I think it’s a no-brainer to bring History TV18 along, to complement Nat Geo (Wild) and Star Life, although some of those may be closed or sold. A+E Networks is partly owned by The Walt Disney Company anyway, so this seems logical.

History Tv is not the part of this deal . Its Part Of Network18 News Channels. Only Viacom18 & Star India Channels merging.

 

[jikookcyher]

History Tv is not the part of this deal . Its Part Of Network18 News Channels. Only Viacom18 & Star India Channels merging.

what about VH1 ? I don't want only eng music channel to shut down

 

[sagu]

It would be great, if they Continue Channels like this in Tamil.

Colors Tamil - Premium / Youth GEC
Big Budget Serials + Daily Reality Shows
Like, BIGG BOSS
Kodeeswari
+ Movies (7 AM / 3 PM / 11 PM)

Vijay TV - GEC (U+R)
Serials & Weekend reality Shows

Vijay Super / Colors Tamil Cinema
Movies 24x7

Vijay Music / M TV Tamil (Vijay Takkar Rebrand)
Songs with Live Shows

 

[SarFa]

what about VH1 ? I don't want only eng music channel to shut down

Vhi1 is part of Viacom18 it'll be merging with Star . Don't know about its future.