All live sporting events streamed by the newly-merged Disney-Reliance business in India, including the popular Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket, will be available only on Disney’s Hotstar app, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Will be.
The decision marks the first major integration of the businesses and signals that billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, which owns a majority stake in the new venture, is not planning to spin off the Disney platform, though it is unclear whether Hotstar will. Will rebranding be done or not? Disney declined to comment, while Reliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In February, Disney and Reliance agreed to an $8.5 billion merger of their media assets that would create India’s largest entertainment company with a combined 120 TV channels and two streaming apps, but they did not provide any details. Did not provide details on how they will merge or operate after the deal.
Reliance’s JioCinema holds the rights to IPL cricket, the highest-grossing and most-streamed event, and also the rights to the Winter Olympics and Indian Super League football. Hotstar has the rights to International Cricket Council tournaments, English Premier League football and the domestic Pro Kabaddi League in India.
Hotstar chief Sajith Shivanandan held a town-hall this week in which he informed employees about Reliance’s decision to remove live sports streams from the app, a source said. The source said the decision was influenced by Hotstar’s superior back-end technology for handling live content as well as serving targeted ads. He said that Hotstar aims to complete this transformation by January.
A second source said it was unclear how other entertainment content would be integrated, including whether the enterprise would continue to operate two apps or shut down one. India’s competition regulator approved the merger in August after both companies offered concessions to ease concerns over their hold on cricket broadcasting rights, including a commitment not to increase advertising rates unreasonably. Was also included. Hotstar is known for handling live content seamlessly in cricket-crazy India, where it’s common for millions of people to watch the event at the same time. Last year, it had set a record of 59 million viewers during the final of the Men’s Cricket World Cup.
