Star and Viacom18’s mega-merger: How will Reliance and Disney disrupt India?

Where Star and Viacom18 will complement each other — and where they will overlap

There are multiple genres where Star and Viacom18 operate largely the same types of channels, with Star’s being far more popular than Viacom18’s Colors-branded channels. Such genres include Hindi GEC, Hindi movies and a number of regional languages, where channels like Star Plus (Hindi), Star Maa (Telugu) and Star Pravah (Marathi) are all among the top 10 most-watched channels, whereas only the flagship Colors channel in Hindi can claim the same for Viacom18. But Viacom18 does have its advantages: historically in niche genres like English GEC and music/youth, but also more recently in sports, despite having a very small number of Sports18 channels. Below we go through and examine all these genres, bearing in mind that many channels (especially from Viacom18) will likely be sold or shuttered.

Hindi GEC and movies

Star Plus remains the predominant Hindi pay GEC by a long distance thanks to its serials, with little to no reality shows, but Star Bharat is at the opposite extreme, as it has sunk to the bottom of the ratings chart despite multiple rebrands and repositionings. While Colors itself is reasonably successful — much more than Zee TV and Sony TV — it has become over-reliant on Bigg Boss and Naagin, putting it short of Star Plus or for that matter the free-to-air Dangal. Their respective rural-focused channels, Star Utsav and Colors Rishtey, have largely lost relevance due to their being removed from DD Free Dish in 2022.

The nine-channel, Star Gold-branded bouquet of Hindi movie channels is far more powerful in terms of content and library diversity than the four Colors Cineplex-branded channels, just as Zee’s ten Hindi movie channels (led by Zee Cinema and &pictures) — nine until the rebranding of Zee Ganga to Zee Anmol Cinema 2 in April 2024 — are more substantial than Sony’s four, with Sony Max the leader. But Viacom18 has some noteworthy deals with Bollywood production houses, most notably Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, and these are likely to continue in the combined entity, while Star’s existing deals with major producers like Yash Raj Films will remain in place.

The presence of niche channels like Star Gold Select and Star Gold Romance, plus a dubbed Hollywood channel in the form of Star Gold Thrills, rounds out Disney Star’s comprehensive Hindi movie slate, with Star Gold, Star Gold 2 and Star Gold Select all having HD feeds. Also, both broadcasters’ respective free-to-air Hindi movie channels — Star Utsav Movies and Colors Cineplex Superhits (plus Colors Cineplex Bollywood which is similar to Star Gold 2 or Select) — remain available on DD Free Dish, unlike their GEC counterparts, and so provide some competition to the Goldmines channels’ dominance with their South Indian (particularly Telugu) actioners. That said, it’s highly likely that some or all of the Colors Cineplex channels may be discontinued, given the higher recognition and popularity of the Star Gold brand — in the same way that the UTV brand was also shuttered in March 2023.

Sports properties

Star Sports is a massive broadcaster, with a whopping 17 channels including seven in HD, compared to just five for Sports18 with only one HD channel. (For comparison, Sony Sports Network has ten channels, five each in SD and HD.) This is despite Sports18 (and JioCinema) having the rights to major events like the domestic BCCI cricket rights, the Women’s Premier League, European football leagues and the now-concluded Paris Olympics. Reliance’s focus on the free streaming on JioCinema — despite the movie-oriented name — has turned it into a sports powerhouse, especially with the IPL’s digital rights, but this has come at the expense of developing and distributing the Sports18 channels. Having just one HD sports channel is woefully inadequate for the range of events that the Sports18 channels show, which is exacerbated by the fact that for major events like the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the recent Paris Olympics, Viacom18 has heavily prioritised JioCinema over the Sports18 channels.

But since sports is one of the biggest cornerstones of the merger, Star Sports’ broadcast events — most notably the ICC rights and the IPL’s satellite rights in cricket, as well as other sports like the Pro Kabbadi League and the Premier League in football — may eventually be merged with Sports18’s offerings. Similarly, JioCinema might be merged into the more established Disney+ Hotstar to create the ultimate streaming platform, particularly in sports, but that is mere speculation at this stage. In any case, JioCinema’s days of free streaming of major sports events may soon come to an end, even though there is a good chance that JioCinema will be the surviving OTT brand and not Disney+ Hotstar.