Paramount Global has reached a binding agreement to sell its 13 percent stake in Reliance-controlled Indian media company Viacom18 to Reliance for $517 million, both companies said on Wednesday.
The deal will increase Reliance’s stake in Viacom18, which operates dozens of television channels as well as streaming service JioCinema, to 70.49 percent, Reliance said in a Revelation (PDF) on a local stock exchange. Law firm JSA Associates said late last month it was advising the two companies on the deal.
The move comes after Disney announced plans to merge its India operations with Viacom18 late last month. The two companies said their merger would create a joint venture valued at $8.5 billion. Viacom18 also counts Bodhi Tree, an investment firm run by James Murdoch and Uday Shankar, among its backers.
The joint venture is set to capture about 85% of the country’s on-demand streaming service audience and about half of TV viewers, analysts say, posing bigger challenges to Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Apple, Sony and Zee.
The merger, which is scheduled to be completed by March 2025, will have exclusive digital and broadcast rights to some of the key sporting events — including the next four years of popular IPL cricket tournaments, top ICC events, domestic Indian cricket, World Cup FIFA , Premier League and Wimbledon.
Paramount will continue to license its content to Viacom18, the US entertainment company disclosed in an SEC filing (PDF). Between Disney India’s Hotstar and Viacom18’s JioCinema, the joint venture will host some of the most sought-after content, including catalogs from Warner Bros., HBO, NBCUniversal and Disney.
Paramount started investing in India almost two decades ago. MTV Networks, a unit of Paramount, formed Viacom18 in 2007. Years later, Paramount Global formed a joint venture with TV18, another media company in which Reliance eventually acquired a controlling stake.
