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Paramount Global Sells Its Stake in Viacom18 to India’s Reliance Industries for $517 Million
March 14, 2024
Paramount Global has sold its 13% minority ownership of India’s Viacom18 to Reliance Industries, in a deal valued at $517 million, according to a regulatory filing. Viacom18 owns Indian streaming service JioCinema, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and MTV in India, among other assets. The deal helps Paramount clear up its balance sheet as it tries to potentially sell the media company.
Paramount Global has a $30 billion offer from The Weather Channel owner Byron Allen.
Reliance recently acquired majority control and ownership of Disney’s Indian media assets for $8.5 billion, which includes the Disney+ Hotstar subscription streaming service.
Hotstar has been key to the global rollout of Disney+ since the SVOD platform’s launch in late 2019. Key to that was Hotstar’s streaming rights to Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket, with the sport a national pastime in India.
When Hotstar lost the IPL rights to Viacom18 in 2023, the streamer, which at one time accounted for 36% of all Disney+ subscribers worldwide, began hemorrhaging subscribers. The platform lost 4.6 million subs in the first 90 days of 2023 after losing the IPL rights.
Through the most-recent fiscal period ended Dec. 31, 2023, Disney+ Hotstar added 700,000 subs, ending the period with 38.3 million subscribers — more than 25% of Disney+ global subscribers.