India's Tata Play, Airtel Digital TV near merger, ET reports (updated)

Dish TV India

25/02/2025 06:09

(Adds more merger information, context, share price movement)
       Feb 25 (Reuters) - India's Tata Group and Bharti Group
are close to merging their satellite TV businesses, creating a
nearly $1.6 billion entity with the aim of tiding over the
sustained migration of subscribers to digital streaming,
Economic Times reported on Tuesday.
    The merged entity is expected to be run by Bharti Airtel
 BRTI.NS , which will likely hold between 52%-55% with the
remaining held by Tata Play  TATK.BO  shareholders, including
Walt Disney  DIS.N , the report said, citing sources.
    Bharti Airtel, Tata Play and Disney did not immediately
respond to Reuters requests for comments.
    Tata Play, a 70:30 venture between Tata Sons and Disney, and
Airtel had a combined 35 million paid subscribers as of last
September, more than half the 60 million subscribers
industry-wide at the time, according to a government report.
    The two businesses are being approximately valued between 60
billion ($690.76 million)-70 billion rupees ($805.89 million)
each, with their revenue exceeding 70 billion rupees in fiscal
2024, ET reported.
    The deal is the second major one in the sector since Dish TV
 DSTV.NS  merged with Videocon d2h in 2016 and follows the $8.5
billion-merger of Reliance Industries  RELI.NS  streaming media
assets with Disney's Indian media assets last year.
    Bharti Airtel shares were last up 1.7% on the day.

    ($1 = 86.8610 Indian rupees)
  

 (Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana
Nandy)
 ((aleefjahan.cs@thomsonreuters.com))