US-based cable giant Comcast group, which owns a string of media properties, has received the green signal from India's competition authority to join hands with James Murdoch for an India foray.
Comcast unit NBC Universal has received the Competition Commission of India’s approval to acquire a minority stake in a company that is currently owned by Murdoch’s Lupa Systems (now renamed Marigold Park Capital) and Indian media veteran Uday Shankar.
VCCircle had first reported the proposed deal on February 15.
The development comes three years after their joint bid to buy a stake in homegrown media house Zee Enterprises came to nought as Zee’s Subhash Chandra decided to sell a stake to investment firm Invesco.
Comcast’s investment will partially finance the Rs 13,500 crore ($1.76 billion then) transaction announced last year where Murdoch and Shankar’s platform Bodhi Tree Systems committed to buy a 40% stake in Reliance Industries Ltd’s Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.
Reliance Industries had said back then that its unit would separately invest Rs 1,645 crore in Viacom18. The investment was to help make Viacom18 one of the largest TV and digital streaming companies in India.
Global media and entertainment company Paramount Global, formerly known as ViacomCBS, will continue as a shareholder of Viacom18 and will continue to supply Viacom18 its premium global content.
Viacom18 is amongst the leading players in the core linear television business with 38 channels across nine languages and a pan-India presence. It mainly operates the suite of Colors TV channels and OTT platform VOOT. In addition, the JioCinema OTT app was to be transferred to Viacom18.
This came soon after Bodhi Tree Systems said it had raised $1.5 billion from sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
Bodhi Tree will focus on media and consumer technology opportunities in South and Southeast Asia, with a focus on India. Lupa Systems founder and CEO James Murdoch, son of News Corp chairman and billionaire Rupert Murdoch, and Shankar, who is the former president of Walt Disney Asia Pacific, are co-chairs of Bodhi Tree.
Shankar previously led Star India as CEO and expanded it into one of India’s biggest media and entertainment companies. He later led 21st Century Fox's operations throughout Asia. He was appointed president of Walt Disney Asia Pacific when the Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox. He left Disney two years ago.
Lupa Systems is a private holding company founded in 2019 by James Murdoch, the former CEO of 21st Century Fox, Sky and STAR. It focuses on companies within the technology and media industries, particularly within the Indo-Pacific region. It is also an investor in online learning institution Harappa Education in India.