Money will be taken to expand its media and business in both operating their media and broadcasting
Akankshya Mukherjee, Mumbai Uncensored, 27th January 2022 :
The Reliance Industries will be raising about Rs. 12,000 crores from their financial investors to expand the media business by augmenting its operations in broadcasting and digital media both. With a strong financial back, the aggregate is preparing to compete against the leading industries such as Amazon, Hotstar and Netflix among others.
Disney India Chairman and former Star Mr. Uday Shankar along with a former CEO of the 21st Century Fox Mr. James Murdoch have bind as strategic partners, playing a vital role in the growth of the Reliance media business. Today, Star Disney are the market leaders, with a viewership share of about 18.6% in India.
However, the forthcoming merger of Zee Entertainment and Sony Pictures Networks Private Limited (SPNI) will effectively create the situation where the unified entity in India will hold a viewership of 26.7%.
Reliance is most likely to compete against them, and in process it will be the largest shareholder whereas their partner Viacom’s stake in the Viacom18 joint venture will be reportedly coming down gradually. Viacom18 operates satellite TV channels under the Colors brand in various languages, apart from MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central. It also runs a video streaming service branded ‘Voot’.
At the 2018 Annual General Meeting (AGM), Mukesh Ambani said “Doubling of these metrics at such scale is truly unparalleled. Our customers are actively engaged with us for more than 290 minutes per day on an average”. According to Media analysts, the digital world is the fastest-growing segment in the media sector, expanding at 22-23 percent annually on an average basis.
The competition is very strong in the Subscription Video-On-Demand (SVOD) market. Disney+, Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have 46 million, 21.8 million and 5.5 million paid users, respectively, according to a report by Media Partners Asia, a research and advisory firm. Ferzad Palia, head of the SVOD and international business at Viacom18, had said the series is the first in a list of regional originals. Further adds “Over the next 12 months, we will significantly dial up our regional language roster”.
