Reliance, Disney seek antitrust clearance for merger over cricket media rights
The two companies reportedly addressed CCI, allaying concerns about the merged entity dominating cricket broadcasting and streaming
Reliance Industries Limited and Walt Disney have reportedly sought antitrust clearance for their media merger, stating that their combined entity won’t pose a threat to advertisers or competitors, especially in cricket broadcasting.
According to a news report, Reliance and Disney told the Competition Commission of India (CCI) that each of their cricket rights were individually obtained through different competitive bidding processes.
The two media giants reportedly told CCI that other competitors won’t be affected and those media rights can be bid for when they expire in 2027 and 2028.
The news report says that CCI will review the confidential filing. Clearance may take several weeks, and longer if the watchdog has additional questions about the issue.
Disney and Reliance together own billions worth of TV and digital cricket rights for the Indian Premier League, matches of the International Cricket Council and those of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
There were concerns that the merged entity could have a higher leverage over advertisers and consumers given their dominance in cricket streaming and broadcasting.
CCI’s former head of mergers, KK Sharma reportedly said in March that the regulator could be concerned as there will be “hardly anything of cricket” that will be left for competitors and Disney-Reliance would have “absolute control over cricket.”
The companies reportedly argued that there won’t be any threat to competition or advertisers as cricket viewers can be targeted on other platforms such as YouTube and Meta.
They also stated that the deal won’t short-change advertisers as consumers watch content across TV, social media and streaming apps.
According to market estimation, the merged company will control 40% of TV advertising and 42% of the total TV market share. It is also predicted to command a digital OTT market share of 34% in 2023. The new company will have over 750 million viewers across India and will also cater to the Indian diaspora across the world.
