Mumbai: Industry experts anticipate that the merger between Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and Walt Disney India could come under antitrust scrutiny, signaling potential dominance issues. The impending Reliance-Disney merger is poised to forge India’s largest television conglomerate, boasting a repertoire of over 120 channels and a valuation of $8.5 billion.
Lawyers have raised red flags over the combined entity’s formidable portfolio of cricket broadcast rights, expressing concerns about its impact on advertisers. With an estimated 35 percent viewership share in the Indian television landscape, the Reliance-Disney merger’s dominance, particularly in the cricket segment, is drawing significant regulatory attention.
According to a report by the news agency Reuters, K.K Sharma, a former head of mergers at the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and now a senior partner at Singhania and Co, emphasized the need for thorough scrutiny, asserting, “With Disney and Reliance together, hardly anything of cricket will be left. The regulator gets concerned even when there is a possibility of dominance. Here, it is not merely dominance but almost absolute control over cricket.
Amidst parallels drawn with the recent Zee-Sony merger, where CCI intervened, experts speculate that Viacom18 and Disney Star may be compelled to divest channels to maintain market balance. The intense competition between Disney and Reliance for cricket broadcast rights, exemplified by Reliance’s offer of free live streaming of Indian Premier League matches and Disney’s subsequent offer of free live streaming of the cricket World Cup on mobile devices, underscores the high stakes involved.
