Reliance-Disney JV: Who are the top leaders at JioStar?
The JV will be one of the largest Media & Entertainment companies in India with pro forma combined revenue of approximately Rs 26,000 crore for the fiscal year ended in March 2024.
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Reliance Industries Limited, Viacom 18 Media Private Limited and The Walt Disney Company announced that following the approval by the Hon’ble NCLT Mumbai, Competition Commission of India and other regulatory authorities, the merger of the media and JioCinema businesses of Viacom18 into Star India Private Limited (“SIPL”) has become effective.
In addition, RIL has invested Rs 11,500 crore into the JV for its growth. The JV has allotted shares to Viacom18 and RIL as consideration for the assets and cash, respectively.
The transaction values the JV at Rs 70,352 crore (~US$ 8.5 billion) on a post-money basis, excluding synergies. At the closing of the transactions noted above, the JV is controlled by RIL and owned 16.34% by RIL, 46.82% by Viacom18 and 36.84% by Disney.
Nita M. Ambani will be the Chairperson of the JV, with Mr. Uday Shankar as Vice Chairperson providing strategic guidance to the JV.
The JV will be spearheaded by three CEOs who will lead the company into a new era of ambition and disruption.
Kevin Vaz will head the entertainment organisation across platforms.
Kiran Mani will take charge of the combined digital organization.
Sanjog Gupta will lead the combined sports organisation.
Together, they will leverage their unique strengths to cultivate a bold, transformative vision that challenges the status quo and sets new standards in the industry.
Take a look at some of the other leaders and executives of the JV.
Alok Jain – Head of Cluster, Entertainment (Colors, Digital Hindi, Niche, Movies and Studio)
Sumanta Bose – Head of Cluster, Entertainment (Star Plus and Bharat, Bengali, Marathi and Gujarati)
Krishnan Kutty – Head of Cluster, Entertainment (South)
Ajit Varghese – Head of Revenue, Entertainment & International
Piyush Goyal – Head of TV Distribution
Rasesh Upadhyay – To work directly with Kevin Vaz to drive Entertainment business strategy and operations.
Bharath Ram – Head of Product
Akash Saxena – Head of Technology
Shoury Bharadwaj – Head of Engineering
Vijay Seshadri – Chief Architect
Ishan Chatterjee – Head of Business, Sports Revenue, SMB & Creator
Hursh Shrivastava – Head of Partnerships
Sushant Sreeram – Head of Marketing
Gaurav Gokhale – To work directly with Kiran Mani to drive Digital business strategy and operations.
Ambuj Kashyap – To work directly with Uday Shankar and partner with CEOs on strategic and business initiatives.
Rishi Gaind – Head of Human Resources
George Cherian – Head of Corporate Communications & PR
Sandeep Jain – Head of Commercial
The JV will be one of the largest Media & Entertainment companies in India with pro forma combined revenue of approximately Rs 26,000 crore (~US$ 3.1 billion) for the fiscal year ended in March 2024. The JV operates over 100 TV channels and produces 30,000+ hours of TV entertainment content annually. The JioCinema and Hotstar digital platforms have an aggregate subscription base of over 50 million. The JV holds a portfolio of sports rights across cricket, football and other sports.
In a separate transaction, RIL has bought out Paramount Global’s entire stake of 13.01% in Viacom18 for ₹ 4,286 crore. As a result, Viacom18 is owned 70.49% by RIL, 13.54% by Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. and 15.97% by Bodhi Tree Systems, on a fully-diluted basis.
