Following reports that Disney India and Reliance Industries plan to merge their Indian entertainment operations;

Pinky Hiranandani, Senior Thematic Intelligence Analyst at GlobalData, offers her view:

“Reliance will become India’s largest video streaming provider if the proposed merger goes through. It will hold about a third of the country’s video streaming subscribers, putting it ahead of Netflix and Amazon. However, the high-profile deal could also attract anti-competitive regulatory scrutiny.

“The race for market share has forced streamers to offer premium sports content for free, which has hurt the market dynamics and profits given the high cost of acquiring the media rights for sports tournaments. The proposed merger would give Reliance access to major sporting events currently shown by Disney, such as the International Cricket Council tournament and English Premier League.

“The deal could also help Disney retain subscribers, given Reliance’s strong sports and entertainment content acquisition strategy. Disney India’s subscriber base fell by 39% year-over-year to 37.6 million in September 2023, primarily due to the loss of streaming rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament and the non-renewal of its HBO content partnership.”