Disney to merge India business with Reliance Industries

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) and Reliance Industries (RELIANCE.NS) are teaming up for a joint venture. As part of the deal, Disney's India operations will be merged with Reliance's Viacom18. The deal is valued at $8.5 billion.

Yahoo Finance's Seana Smith and Brad Smith break down the deal.

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Editor's note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulich.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: Let's get to a big deal that's grabbing our attention here at Yahoo Finance. Disney announcing that it is merging its India TV and streaming business with the country's top conglomerate, Reliance Industries. Now this deal will create an $8.5 billion entertainment giant, with Reliance and its affiliates holding more than a 60% stake and Disney holding about a 37% stake within this new joint venture.

And Brad, we bring this up because we know Disney's India business has really been a focal point for Iger, as he does work to streamline Disney's business really across the globe. But this venture, in particular, and the reason why Bob Iger is saying that this makes the most sense for Disney up until this point, or at this point at least, is that Reliance has a deep understanding of the Indian market and the consumer. It's also going to allow the company to better serve its consumers. 120 TV channels, two streaming platforms. And, again, this merger valued around $8.5 billion.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, and it just comes back to the growth of media consumption as well that's targeted within the region. And there have been specific efforts that Disney, and a lot of the other streamers, have been trying to chart forth, whether that's annexed to sports within the region. And some of those efforts date back to even 2017, 2018, where you saw a lot of focus on trying to scoop up different cricket league sponsorships or cricket league streaming and broadcast rights as well, all the way into the content that is either unscripted or even scripted content series as well.

So, this, no doubt, a major move forward in the strategy that we've seen Disney become even more vocal about on the streaming front here. This has a sports element within it. We mentioned how this is essentially going to bring together some of the iconic media assets across entertainment-- Colors, Star Plus, Star Gold.

And then sports-- Star Sports, Sports 18 as well here. And then you've got JioCinema and Hotstar as well. So, over 750 million viewers across India is what this is going to cater towards, is what these companies are saying within this strategic joint venture as well.