![]() Logo used since 2007 | |
Company type | Joint venture |
---|---|
Industry | Television |
Founded | November 2007 |
Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India [1] |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Jyoti Deshpande (CEO) |
Owners | Network18 |
Subsidiaries | Viacom18 Studios [2] JioCinema |
Website | Viacom18.com |
Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Founded in 2007 by the MTV Networks Europe division (now Paramount Networks EMEAA), it later became a joint venture between TV18 and Viacom (now Paramount Global) in 2014, with TV18 becoming the majority shareholder in the company in January 2018 and Bodhi Tree Systems currently owning minority stakes. [3] The company owns and operates various channels, as well as content production studios in India.
In December 2023, Reliance Industries merged its subsidiary TV18 into Network18. [4] In April 2024, Paramount Global fully exited Viacom18 with the sale of its 13.01% stake to Reliance Industries for $517 million. Paramount will continue to license its brands and content to Viacom18.
In January 2010, Viacom18 went international with the launch of Colors in United States. The channel is called Aapka Colors. In July 2010, it got into 50/50 distribution joint venture with Sun Network to form Sun 18. [5]
In December 2011, Viacom18 launched Nickelodeon Sonic, targeting young adults. [6]
In January 2014, TV18 acquired the non-Telugu language TV assets of ETV Network for ₹2,053 crore, with a permission to use ETV brand name. [7]
In March 2015, Viacom18 decided to rebrand all five non-Telugu language ETV regional general entertainment channels. ETV Marathi, ETV Gujarati, ETV Kannada, ETV Bangla, and ETV Odia were rebranded into Colors Marathi, Colors Gujarati, Colors Kannada, Colors Bangla, and Colors Odia respectively. [8]
The company also owns Viacom18 Studios. On 31 January 2018, TV18 announced its acquisition of Viacom's majority in the joint venture, taking operational control and leaving Viacom with minority interest. [9] On 1 October 2019, Viacom18 launched Colors HD in Malaysia on Astro Malaysia; every serial will be served with Malay and English subtitles.[ citation needed ]
More recently, the company had signed a deal with the National Basketball Association in order to deliver live NBA games to all of their own networks. [10]
In June 2020, Sony's Indian unit Sony Pictures Networks was in talks with Viacom18 about a merger, with the talks getting advanced much later. If the merger was successful, Sony would be 74% shareholder in the merged company. [11] However, in October 2020, Reliance Industries, [12] the majority share holder in Viacom18, called off the merger. [13] [14]
In June 2021, [15] reports stated Viacom18 and Zee Entertainment Enterprises were reportedly in talks about a merger. [16] However, Zee denied any talks about a potential merger with Viacom18, [17] later entering talks with Sony Pictures Networks, which was also in talks about a merger with Viacom18 earlier. [18]
In January 2022, there were reports that Lupa India, an investment company set up by Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, were in the final stages of picking up a 39% stake in Viacom18. [19] thereby turning Paramount Global into a minority shareholder with a 10% share in the company. [20] In April 2022, Reliance announced that Bodhi Tree Systems, a company founded by Shankar and Murdoch with backing from the Qatar Investment Authority, [21] would make a US$1.8 billion investment in Viacom18 to "jointly build India’s leading entertainment platform and pioneer the Indian media landscape's transformation to a ‘streaming-first’ approach." As part of the venture, JioCinema—a streaming service owned by Reliance's mobile operator Jio—would be brought under Viacom18. Paramount would remain a stakeholder and content partner. The deal was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in September 2022. [22] [23] The sale was completed on 17 April 2023, with Bodhi Tree acquiring a 13.08% stake in the venture, and diluting Paramount Global's stake to 13.01%. [24]
In December 2023, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company India and Reliance had signed a non-binding term sheet for a merger. According to its terms, Reliance would hold a 51% in the merged company in cash and stock, while Disney would own the remaining 49%. For purposes of the merger, a subsidiary of Viacom18 was going to be created to absorb Disney Star through a stock swap, [25] pending ratification and regulatory approval. [26] [27] [28] [29]
In February 2024, Disney and Reliance reached a deal to merge their streaming and television assets, with the joint venture valued at $8.5 billion including synergies. As part of the deal, Viacom18 would be merged into Disney Star with Disney holding a 36.84% stake in the combined entity, which would bring together assets such as linear television entertainment channels StarPlus, Colors TV and the Star Gold Network, sports channels Star Sports and Sports18 and the streaming services JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar with Nita Ambani serving as the chairperson of the joint venture, with Uday Shankar serving as vice chairperson with the deal giving 16.34% to Reliance and 46.82% to Viacom18 [30] and is expected to close sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 pending regulatory approval. [31] [32]
In March 2024, it was reported that Paramount Global was looking to sell its 13.01% stake in Viacom18 to Reliance, which already owned a 73.91% share via TV18. [33] Although Bloomberg News reported that the deal was unlikely to close, the deal was confirmed a week later for $517 million, its closure subject to regulatory approval and the completion of the joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney. Paramount would however continue to license its content to the company. [34]
On May 14, 2024, It was reported the deal between Disney and Reliance was approved by National Company Law Tribunal, with the JioCinema streaming service being moved to the Digital18 unit as part of the merger. [35] [36]
Following are the distribution channels available from TV18: [37]
Channel | Launched | Language | Category | SD/HD availability | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Colors TV | 2008 | Hindi | General Entertainment | SD+HD | |
Colors Rishtey | 2014 | SD | Previously Rishtey | ||
Colors Cineplex | 2016 | Movies | SD+HD | Formerly Rishtey Cineplex (original) | |
Colors Cineplex Bollywood | 2021 | SD | |||
Colors Cineplex Superhits | 2022 | Previously Rishtey Cineplex (relaunch) | |||
MTV | 1996 | Youth | SD+HD | Formerly MTV HD+ | |
MTV Beats | 2016 | Music | Formerly MTV Indies | ||
Sports18 Khel | 2022 | Sports | SD | ||
Colors Infinity | 2015 | English | General Entertainment | SD+HD | |
Comedy Central | 2012 | ||||
VH1 | 2005 | Music | |||
Sports18 1 | 2022 | Sports | |||
Sports18 2 | 2023 | SD | |||
Sports18 3 | |||||
Nickelodeon (Nick) | 1999 | Hindi Tamil Telugu Malayalam Bengali Marathi Gujarati Kannada | Kids | ||
Nickelodeon Sonic | 2011 | ||||
Nick Jr. | 2012 | Hindi English | |||
Nickelodeon HD+ (NickHD+) | 2015 | HD | |||
History TV18 | 2011 | Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi | Information | SD+HD | Joint Venture with A&E Networks |
Colors Bangla | 2000 | Bengali | General Entertainment | Previously known as ETV Bangla | |
Colors Bangla Cinema | 2019 | Movies | SD | ||
Colors Gujarati | 2002 | Gujarati | General Entertainment | Previously known as ETV Gujarati | |
Colors Gujarati Cinema | 2019 | Movies | |||
Colors Marathi | 2000 | Marathi | General Entertainment | SD+HD | Previously known as ETV Marathi |
Colors Odia | 2002 | Odia | SD | Previously known as ETV Odia | |
Colors Kannada | 2000 | Kannada | SD+HD | Previously known as ETV Kannada | |
Colors Super | 2016 | SD | |||
Colors Kannada Cinema | 2018 | Movies | |||
Colors Tamil | Tamil | General Entertainment | SD+HD | ||
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Its businesses include energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, entertainment, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is the largest public company in India by market capitalisation and revenue, and the 100th largest company worldwide. It is India's largest private tax payer and largest exporter, accounting for 7% of India's total merchandise exports. The company has relatively little free cash flow and high corporate debt.
ETV Network is a network of Telugu language news and entertainment satellite television channels in India. It is based in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It also had some non Telugu-language satellite television channels. All non-Telugu satellite television channels were acquired by Reliance Industries-owned TV18 for ₹2,053 crore in FY 2014–15 and later rebranded.
TV18 Broadcast Limited was an Indian television company based in Mumbai and owned by Network18 Group. TV18 owned and operates various national channels in separate partnerships with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN-News18). In December 2023, it merged with its parent company Network18 Group.
Network18 Media & Investments Limited, commonly referred to as the Network18 Group and sometimes as the Network18–Eenadu Group, is an Indian media conglomerate owned by the energy giant Reliance Industries, headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani. Rahul Joshi is the managing director, chief executive officer and group editor-in-chief of Network18, and Adil Zainulbhai is the chairman of its board of directors.
Viacom18 Studios is an Indian film distribution and production company. It is a subsidiary of Viacom18 based in Mumbai and it is one of the first studio model based motion picture & content production business in India, with an operation that involves acquisition, production, syndication, marketing and worldwide distribution of full-length feature films as well as digital only films, web series, short films.
Colors Bangla is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel broadcasting in Bengali language. It was launched in 2000 as ETV Bangla, owned by the Hyderabad-based ETV Network. It was later sold to TV18 and was rebranded under the Colors moniker.
TheWalt Disney Company India, also known as Disney India, is the Indian subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Reliance Retail is an Indian retail company and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Founded in 2006, it is the largest retailer in India in terms of revenue. Its retail outlets offer foods, groceries, apparel, footwear, toys, home improvement products, electronic goods, and farm implements and inputs. As of 2023, it has over 245,000 employees at 18,000 store locations in 7,000 towns. Apart from physical stores, the company also sells products on its e-commerce channels.
DEN Networks Limited is an Indian cable television and broadband service provider company in India. It is owned by Sameer Manchanda and was acquired by Reliance Industries in 2018 along with Hathway. In 2003, it stood as one of the three major cable distributors in India alongside Hathway and InCablenet.
Disney Star is an Indian media conglomerate owned by Disney India, which is the Indian regional subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Disney Star runs more than 70 television channels in eight languages, reaching out to 9 out of 10 cable and satellite television homes in India. The network reaches approximately 790 million viewers a month across India and more than 100 countries. Disney Star generates more than 30,000 hours of content every year. Disney Star is the largest television and entertainment network in India.
Colors Gujarati is an Indian television channel that primarily broadcasts Gujarati entertainment shows.
Nickelodeon is an Indian children's pay television network based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is the Indian equivalent to the original American network and is owned by Viacom18, a joint venture between Paramount Global and TV18. Despite using the "Nickelodeon" branding, it does not air any content from strategies in recent times as part of a localisation strategy and this original Nickelodeon content is only broadcast on the Nickelodeon HD+ channel. As of October 2020, Nickelodeon is the most watched children's channel in India.
Disney+ Hotstar is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Disney India, a subsidiary of Disney Company, featuring domestic Indian film, television and sports content for India itself and its worldwide diaspora. It also includes imported content from and serves Southeast Asia as well.
Voot was an Indian over-the-top media service (OTT) owned by Viacom18. First launched in March 2016, it offered content from Viacom18's local brands, as well as original series. It initially launched as an advertising-supported service, before introducing a subscription tier in 2020 under the Voot Select banner.
The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company was announced on December 14, 2017, and was completed on March 20, 2019. Among other key assets, the acquisition included the 20th Century Fox film and television studios, U.S. cable channels such as FX, Fox Networks Group, a 73% stake in National Geographic Partners, Indian television broadcaster Star India, and a 30% stake in Hulu. The assets like the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business, Fox Sports 1 and 2, Fox Deportes, and the Big Ten Network were not part of the deal and they were spun off into a new company called Fox Corporation on March 19, 2019. Other 21st Century Fox assets such as the Fox Sports Networks and Sky were divested and sold off to Sinclair and Comcast, respectively.
Paramount Global is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, Midtown Manhattan. The company was formed on December 4, 2019, as ViacomCBS through the merger of the second incarnations of CBS Corporation and Viacom. The company took its current name on February 16, 2022.
Jio Platforms is an Indian multinational technology company, headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Established in 2019, it acts as a holding company for India's largest mobile network operator, Jio, and other digital businesses of Reliance.
JioCinema is an Indian subscription based video-on-demand and over-the-top media streaming service owned by Digital18 a subsidiary of Viacom18, a joint venture of Reliance Industries and Paramount Global. It offers free advertising- and subscription-based video on demand and live streaming content. The service was initially launched on 4 May 2016 alongside the public launch of the Jio mobile carrier.
Sports18 Network is a group of Indian multinational pay television sports channels owned by Viacom18, a joint venture between Network 18 and Paramount Global. Launched on 15 April 2022, the channel currently holds rights of flagship tournaments like 2022 FIFA World Cup, ATP Tour Masters 1000, BWF World Championships, MotoGP, MXGP, Indian Super League, La Liga, Serie A etc.
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