Reliance-Disney JV: Top Faces Representing JioStar Leadership

Reliance Industries, Viacom 18 Media and The Walt Disney Company declared that the merger of Viacom18's media and JioCinema businesses into Star India ("SIPL") has taken effect after being approved by the Hon'ble NCLT Mumbai, Competition Commission of India, and other regulatory bodies.

RIL has also contributed Rs 11,500 crore to the JV in order to support its expansion. As payment for the properties and cash, respectively, the JV has given shares to Viacom18 and RIL.

Excluding synergies, the transaction values the JV at Rs 70,352 crore (about US$ 8.5 billion) on a post-money basis. After the aforementioned deals, RIL controls 16.34 per cent of the JV, Viacom18 owns 46.82 per cent, and Disney owns 36.84 per cent.

The JV will be chaired by Nita M. Ambani, and its vice chairperson, Uday Shankar, will serve as its strategic advisor.

Three CEOs will be leading the joint venture, guiding the business into a new phase of ambition and change.

Kevin Vaz will head the entertainment organisation across platforms.

Kiran Mani will take charge of the combined digital organisation.

Sanjog Gupta will lead the combined sports organisation.

Together, they will leverage their unique strengths to cultivate a bold, transformative vision that challenges the status quo and sets new standards in the industry.

Take a look at some of the other leaders and executives of the JV.

Alok Jain – Head of Cluster, Entertainment (Colors, Digital Hindi, Niche, Movies and Studio)

Sumanta Bose – Head of Cluster, Entertainment (Star Plus and Bharat, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati)

Krishnan Kutty – Head of Cluster, Entertainment (South)

Ajit Varghese – Head of Revenue, Entertainment & International

Piyush Goyal – Head of TV Distribution

Rasesh Upadhyay – To work directly with Kevin Vaz to drive Entertainment business strategy and operations.

Bharath Ram – Head of Product

Akash Saxena – Head of Technology

Shoury Bharadwaj – Head of Engineering

Vijay Seshadri – Chief Architect

Ishan Chatterjee – Head of Business, Sports Revenue, SMB & Creator

Hursh Shrivastava – Head of Partnerships

Sushant Sreeram – Head of Marketing

Gaurav Gokhale – To work directly with Kiran Mani to drive Digital business strategy and operations.

Ambuj Kashyap – To work directly with Uday Shankar and partner with CEOs on strategic and business initiatives.

Rishi Gaind – Head of Human Resources

George Cherian – Head of Corporate Communications & PR

Sandeep Jain – Head of Commercial

The JV will be one of the largest media & entertainment companies in India with pro forma combined revenue of approximately Rs 26,000 crore (~US$ 3.1 billion) for the fiscal year ended in March 2024. The JV operates over 100 TV channels and produces 30,000+ hours of TV entertainment content annually. The JioCinema and Hotstar digital platforms have an aggregate subscription base of over 50 million. The JV holds a portfolio of sports rights across cricket, football and other sports.

In a separate transaction, RIL has bought out Paramount Global’s entire stake of 13.01 per cent in Viacom18 for ₹ 4,286 crore. As a result, Viacom18 is owned 70.49 per cent by RIL, 13.54 per cent by Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. and 15.97 per cent by Bodhi Tree Systems, on a fully diluted basis.