The Walt Disney Company has struck a deal to sell its minority stake in an Indian subscription television service to local conglomerate and majority shareholder Tata Group. The transaction values the satellite TV provider, Tata Play, at about $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Tata Group took full control of the platform by purchasing the 29.8 percent stake from Disney. Tata Play, which offers pay television through set-top boxes and over-the-top video streaming via its app, boasts 23 million subscribers. Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group, had previously acquired a 10 percent stake from state-owned Singaporean investment vehicle Temasek Holdings for approximately $100 million.
The TV provider had planned an initial public offering in 2022 but the listing has yet to happen. The latest deal comes after Disney signed an agreement in February to merge its Indian media businesses with local conglomerate Reliance Industries, the biggest Indian company by market cap with interests in energy, luxury retail and telecommunications.
The merger is set to establish an $8.5 billion entertainment giant in the world's most populous nation offering more than 100 television channels and two streaming platforms. Reliance already has a majority stake in media venture Viacom18 and its streaming app JioCinema.
As a background, it is worth mentioning that in 2022, the venture spent more than $3 billion to secure the lucrative digital broadcast rights for the Indian Premier League, a domestic cricket competition watched by hundreds of millions of people each year. Currently, Disney's Indian streaming service Hotstar had more than 38 million subscribers at the end of 2023, according to company figures, and broke viewership records last year as India hosted the Cricket World Cup.