Reliance Industries and Viacom18 have entered into a strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree Systems, an investment platform owned by Rupert Murdoch’s son James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and former president of Walt Disney Co and APAC chairman of Star and Disney India, Uday Shankar.
Bodhi Tree Systems will lead an investment of Rs 13,500 crore ($1.76 billion) in Viacom18 that will give it nearly 40% shareholding in the company. The transaction is expected to close within six months and is subject to closing conditions and requisite approvals.
Reliance Projects & Property Management Services Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries which has a significant presence in television, streaming, distribution, content creation, and production services, will invest Rs 1,645 crore ($215 million. In addition, the JioCinema OTT app will be transferred to Viacom18, a statement from the company said.
Paramount Global, formerly known as ViacomCBS, a leading global media and entertainment company that owns TV networks and streaming services such as CBS, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon and MTV, will continue as a minority shareholder and supply Viacom18 its premium global content.
ViacomCBS had 49% stake in Viacom18. In India, Viacom18 operates TV channels such as Colors, Rishtey, Cineplex, Colors regional bouquet and OTT platform Voot.
In February this year, James Murdoch and Uday Shankar had announced the launch of Bodhi Tree as an investment platform which is financially supported by the Qatar Investment Authority who has committed $1.5 billion to it. Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar.
“James and Uday’s track record is unmatched. For over two decades, they have played an undeniable role in shaping the media ecosystem in India, Asia, and around the World. We are very excited to partner with Bodhi Tree and lead India’s transition to a streaming-first media market,” Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd said in a statement.
Murdoch and Shankar said their ambition is to leverage technology advances, particularly in mobile, to provide meaningful solutions to meet everyday media and entertainment needs at scale. “We seek to reshape the entertainment experience across more than 1 billion screens,” they added.
People familiar with the development said that the company will put its might behind building the Jio Cinema app besides focusing on the sports vertical.
With an eye on entities like the Indian Premier League, Viacom18 has already launched a sports channel Sports18 earlier this month that is airing sports properties such as NBA (National Basketball Association), FIFA World Cup and LaLiga, among others.
The network had appointed Anil Jayaraj as CEO - Sports to lead its foray into acquisition, broadcasting and monetisation of sports properties.
The bidding for both IPL’s satellite television rights and digital streaming rights will take place on 12 June. The rights for the next five seasons will be on auction. In 2018, Uday Shankar, then Star India chairman and chief executive officer, had successfully bid for consolidated media rights for the IPL for a sum of Rs 16,347.50 crore for a period of five years. This year, other than Sony and Disney Star, Reliance-owned Viacom is expected to bid fiercely for IPL.
Karan Taurani, senior vice-president, Elara Capital Ltd said that the deal going through is a big plus for Viacom18 as its sports offering will become strong under Uday Shankar’s support.
In January 2021, Murdoch and Shankar had announced that they would be joining hands to set up a new venture that would explore technology and media opportunities in emerging markets. The two have worked together when the latter was overseeing News Corp.’s Asia business in the late 2000s. Walt Disney later acquired 21st Century Fox in a $71 billion cash-and-stock deal in June 2018, which made Star India, Fox Star Studios, and Hotstar part of Walt Disney.