Draft:JioStar
Indian media conglomerate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
JioStar, registered as JioStar India Private Limited, is an Indian media conglomerate. It is a joint venture between Reliance Industries, it's subsidiary Network18 Group, and Disney India.[1][2] JioStar was formed on 14 November 2024, through the merger of Viacom18 with Disney Star (a subsidiary of Disney India).[3] The deal, valued at $8.5 billion, involved the investment of ₹11,000 crore (US$1.3 billion) by Reliance Industries, which left Reliance Industries with a 16.34 percent stake, Viacom18 with 46.82 percent, and Disney India with 36.84 percent.[4]
| Submission declined on 21 August 2025 by Vanilla Wizard (talk). This draft appears to be a duplicate of an existing article. Wikipedia does not permit multiple articles on the same topic.
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| Submission declined on 14 August 2025 by HitroMilanese (talk). This draft appears to be a duplicate of an existing article. Wikipedia does not permit multiple articles on the same topic.
Declined by HitroMilanese 7 months ago.
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Comment: If you wish to move the existing page to a different title, please start a discussion on the talk page of the Disney Star article. AfC is not the right place for such requests. Hitro talk 17:08, 14 August 2025 (UTC)
 | This is a draft article. It is a work in progress open to editing by anyone. Please ensure core content policies are met before publishing it as a live Wikipedia article at JioStar. Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL Last edited by Vestrian24Bio 2 (talk | contribs) 5 months ago. (Update)
Finished drafting? or |
 Logo used since 2025 | |
| JioStar India Private Limited | |
| Company type | Indian Private Company |
| Industry | Indian Media conglomerate |
| Predecessor | |
| Founded | 14 November 2024 |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
Area served | India only |
Key people |
|
| Services | Television broadcasting Film Streaming |
| Revenue | ₹110.32 billion (US$1.3 billion) |
| Parent |
|
| Divisions |
|
| Website | www |
Background
Disney Star
1990: Hutchison Whampoa and Li Ka-shing launched Satellite Television Asian Region (STAR) as a joint venture.[5]
1992: Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation acquired 63.6% stake in Star for $525 million.[6]
1993: News Corporation purchased the remaining stake.[7]
2001: Star India acquired South India based Vijay TV.[8]
2008: News Corporation and Star India established Fox Star Studios.[9]
2009: Star India acquired Kerala-based media conglomerate Asianet Communications, which served Malayalam language content.[10]
2015: Star India launched the Hotstar streaming service.[11] Star also acquired the broadcast businesses of Maa Television Pvt. Ltd to boost its presence in Telugu-speaking markets.[12]
2019: The Walt Disney Company acquired Star India's parent company 21st Century Fox. Star India became a subsidiary of Disney India.[13]
2020: The Walt Disney Company merged Hotstar in India with Disney+ to form Disney+ Hotstar.[14]
2022: Disney India rebranded Star India to Disney Star.[15] Fox Star Studios was rebranded to Star Studios.[16]
Viacom18
2007: Viacom18 was founded as a joint venture between TV18 and Viacom Inc.[17]
2010: Viacom18 formed a 50/50 joint venture with Sun Network called Sun 18 for distribution.[18]
2014: TV18 acquired the non-Telugu TV assets of ETV Network and was permitted to use the ETV brand name.[19]
2015: Viacom18 rebranded ETV’s non-Telugu regional channels to Colors Marathi, Colors Gujarati, Colors Kannada, Colors Bangla, and Colors Odia.[20]
2018: TV18 acquired majority operational control by buying most of Viacom’s stake, leaving Viacom with a minority interest.[21]
2022: Bodhi Tree Systems and Reliance entered an agreement to invest $1.8 billion in Viacom18, and JioCinema was integrated under Viacom18.[22]
2023: Bodhi Tree acquired a 15.97% stake in Viacom18.[23]
2024: Viacom (now Paramount Global), fully sold its remaining 13.01% stake in Viacom18 to Reliance Industries. The deal was valued at approximately ₹4,286 crore ($517 million).[24]
History
Formation and beginning of Operations (2023-2024)
In July 2023, The Walt Disney Company began exploring strategic options, including a sale or formation of a joint venture, for their businesses in India.[25] Between September and October 2023, the company held preliminary talks with Reliance Industries, billionaire Gautam Adani and Kalanithi Maran, owner of the Sun Group, for a potential sale of its streaming and linear television assets.[26][27] In late October 2023, it was reported that Disney was nearing a cash and stock deal with Reliance Industries for the sale of its operations in India, including a controlling stake in Star India. The assets Reliance would acquire were reportedly valued at around $7–8 billion and a transaction was to be announced as early as November 2023.[28] Although Disney CEO Bob Iger refuted claims of a sale during a third-quarter earnings call, it was announced in December 2023 that Disney and Reliance had signed a non-binding term sheet for a merger. According to the terms, Reliance would hold 51% of the merged company in cash and stock, while Disney would own the remaining 49%. For purposes of the merger, a subsidiary of Viacom18 was created to absorb Star India through a stock swap,[29] pending ratification and regulatory approval.[30][31][32][33] In February 2024, Disney and Reliance reached a deal to merge their streaming and television assets, with the joint venture valued at $8.5 billion including synergies. As part of the deal, Viacom18 would be merged into Star India with Disney holding a 36.84% stake in the combined entity, which would bring together assets such as linear television entertainment channels StarPlus, Colors TV and the Star Gold Network, sports channels Star Sports and Sports18 and the streaming services JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar with Nita Ambani serving as the chairperson of the joint venture, with Uday Shankar serving as vice chairperson with the deal giving 16.34% to Reliance and 46.82% to Viacom18, with the deal being expected to close sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 pending regulatory approval.[29][34][35] In March 2024, it was reported that Paramount Global was looking to sell its 13.01% stake in Viacom18 to Reliance, which already owned a 73.91% share via TV18.[36] Although Bloomberg News reported that the deal was unlikely to close, the deal was confirmed a week later for $517 million, its closure subject to regulatory approval and the completion of the joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney. Paramount would, however, continue to license its content to the company.[37] In August 2024, the National Company Law Tribunal approved a deal between Disney and Reliance Industries where JioCinema and Viacom18 would be merged into Digital18.[38] In November 2024, Disney and Reliance Industries agreed to merge Star India and Viacom18. The deal was reported to be valued at $8.5 billion.[39]
Launch of JioHotstar, growth (2025-present)
On 14 February, 2025 JioStar combined the streaming services JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar to launch JioHotstar.[40]
On 6 August, 2025 it was reported that JioStar has acquired the exclusive broadcast and streaming rights for the US Open Tennis Championships for the next five years.[41]
Assets
The company has 3 divisions: Entertainment, Digital, and Sports.[42]
Digital[43]
This division is headed by Kiran Mani. It consists of the JioHotstar streaming service.
Sports[43]
This division is headed by Ishan Chatterjee. It handles the sports channels on air, including Star Sports and Star Sports Select, and all sports related business on streaming.
Entertainment[43]
This division consists of Star Studio18 and the various Star and Colors branded TV channels. It is headed by Kevin Vaj.
Leadership
- Nita M. Ambani, Chairperson
- Uday Shankar, Vice Chairperson
- NP Singh, Independent Director
- Bharat N. Anand, Independent Director
Executives[46]
• Kevin Vaz, CEO – Entertainment
• Kiran Mani, CEO – Digital
• Ishan Chatterjee, CEO – Sports
• Alok Jain, Head of Cluster, Entertainment
• Sumanta Bose, Head of Cluster, Star Plus & Regional Channels
• Krishnan Kutty, Head of Cluster, Entertainment South
• Mahesh Shetty, Head of Entertainment Revenue
• Piyush Goyal, Head of TV Distribution
• Sushant Sreeram, Head of Marketing
• Ambuj Kashyap, Strategic Initiatives
• Rasesh Upadhyay, Business Strategy
• Gaurav Gokhale, Digital Operations
• Bharat Ram, Product Development
• Akash Saxena, Chief Technical & Product Officer
• Shoury Bharadwaj, Head of Engineering
• Vijay Seshadri, Chief Architect
• Rishi Gaind, Head of Human Resources
• George Cherian, Head of Corporate Communications & PR
• Rajat Nigam, Transition Head of IT and Media Operations
• Mukesh Mundhra, Transition Finance Head
• Mani Rangarajan, Financial Integration (Transition)
• Kshipra Jatana, Transition Legal Head