Viacom18

Last updated

Viacom18 Media Private Limited
Company type Joint venture
Viacom18
Industry media conglomerate
FoundedNovember 2007;17 years ago (2007-11)
Successor JioStar
Headquarters Lower Parel, Mumbai,Maharashtra, India [1]
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Kevin Vaz (CEO - Broadcast) , Kiran Mani (CEO -Digital and sports)
OwnersJoint Venture between Reliance Industries 70.49%
Network18 13.54%
Bodhi Tree Systems 15.97%
Website viacom18.com

Viacom18 Media Private Limited is a formerly independent Indian media conglomerate, currently part of JioStar. It is a Joint venture between Reliance Industries, Network18 and Bodhi Tree Systems. The joint-venture had various channels and content production studios in India. Following merger of its assets with Disney Star, it continues to be largest shareholder in the newly formed merged entity. [2]

Contents

History

Founding and early years 2007–2011

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. [3]

In December 2011, Viacom18 launched Nickelodeon Sonic, targeting young adults. [4]

ETV Network acquisition and rebranding 2014–2015

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. [5]

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. [6]

Viacom's share acquisition 2018–2019

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. [7] 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. [8]

Attempted mergers with Sony and Zee, partnership with Bodhi Tree Systems 2020–2023

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. [9] However, in October 2020, Reliance Industries, [10] the majority share holder in Viacom18, called off the merger. [11] [12]

In June 2021, [13] reports stated Viacom18 and Zee Entertainment Enterprises were reportedly in talks about a merger. [14] However, Zee denied any talks about a potential merger with Viacom18, [15] later entering talks with Sony Pictures Networks, which was also in talks about a merger with Viacom18 earlier. [16]

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. [17] thereby turning Paramount Global into a minority shareholder with a 10% share in the company. [18] In April 2022, Reliance announced that Bodhi Tree Systems, a company founded by Shankar and Murdoch with backing from the Qatar Investment Authority, [19] 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. [20] [21] 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%. [22]

Merger with Disney Star 2023–present

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, [23] pending ratification and regulatory approval. [24] [25] [26] [27]

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 [28] and is expected to close sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 pending regulatory approval. [29] [30]

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. [31] 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. [32]

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. [33] [34]

On 28 August 2024, the CCI has approved the merger of Disney+ Hotstar with Viacom18. [35]

On 28 September 2024 The Central government gave nod to the transfer of the non-news and current affairs TV channels held by Viacom18 to Star India is subject to conditions laid by Competition commission of India.

On 14 November 2024, Reliance Industries Limited issued a media release stating that merger of Viacom18 with Star India has become effective. [36] [37]

Owned Channels

On-air channels

Folowing are the channels that Viacom18 owned, prior to its merger with Star India:

ChannelLaunchedLanguageCategorySD/HD availabilityNotes
Colors TV 2008 Hindi General EntertainmentSD+HD
Colors Rishtey 2014SDPreviously Rishtey
MTV 1996YouthSD+HDFormerly MTV HD+
MTV Beats 2016MusicFormerly MTV Indies
Colors Cineplex MoviesFormerly Rishtey Cineplex (original)
Colors Cineplex Bollywood 2021SD
Colors Cineplex Superhits 2022Previously Rishtey Cineplex (relaunch)
Sports18 Khel Sports
Sports18 1 English SD+HD
Sports18 2 2023SD
Sports18 3
Colors Infinity 2015General EntertainmentSD+HD
Comedy Central 2012
VH1 2005Music
Nickelodeon 1999 Hindi
Tamil
Telugu
Malayalam
Bengali
Marathi
Gujarati
Kannada 		KidsSD
Nickelodeon Sonic 2011
Nick Jr. 2012 Hindi
English
Nickelodeon HD+ 2015HD
History TV18 2011 Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, MarathiInformationSD+HDJoint Venture with A&E Networks
Colors Bangla 2000 Bengali General EntertainmentPreviously known as ETV Bangla
Colors Bangla Cinema 2019MoviesSD
Colors Gujarati2002 Gujarati General EntertainmentPreviously known as ETV Gujarati
Colors Gujarati Cinema2019Movies
Colors Odia2002 Odia General EntertainmentPreviously known as ETV Odia
Colors Marathi 2000 Marathi SD+HDPreviously known as ETV Marathi
Colors Kannada Kannada Previously known as ETV Kannada
Colors Super 2016SD
Colors Kannada Cinema 2018Movies
Colors Tamil Tamil General EntertainmentSD+HD

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viacom18 Studios</span> Indian film studio

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colors Bangla</span> Indian general entertainment pay TV channel

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References

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  3. ↑ "Beefing Up The Bouquet". business.outlookindia.com. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  4. ↑ "Viacom18 launches its new channel 'Sonic Nickelodeon' in India". India Infoline. 5 December 2018. Archived from the original on 8 March 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  5. ↑ "Network18 finishes Rs 2,053-cr deal to acquire ETV stakes". The Economic Times . 22 January 2014. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
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  7. ↑ "TV18 to increase stake to 51% in Viacom18, the JV with Viacom Inc". Viacom18. 31 January 2018. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
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  29. ↑ Goldsmith, Jill (28 February 2024). "Disney And Reliance Clinch Joint Venture In India". Deadline Hollywood . Archived from the original on 28 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
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  33. ↑ Kumar, Abhijeet (14 May 2024). "NCLT approves merger process for Reliance's arm Viacom18 and Star India". Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  34. ↑ Farooqui, Javed; Vyas, Maulik (17 May 2024). "NLCT sets the ball rolling on merger of Reliance's arm Viacom18 and Star India". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  35. ↑ PTI (28 August 2024). "CCI clears mega-deal involving merger of media assets of RIL and Walt Disney". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  36. ↑ "RIL, Viacom18 and Disney complete merger to create a Rs 70,352 cr JV". The Economic Times. 14 November 2024. ISSN   0013-0389 . Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  37. ↑ "RELIANCE AND DISNEY ANNOUNCE COMPLETION OF TRANSACTION TO FORM JOINT VENTURE TO BRING TOGETHER THE MOST ICONIC AND ENGAGING ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS IN INDIA" (PDF).
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