Lupa Systems, promoted by media veterans Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, and Reliance Industries (RIL) have announced a new partnership for investment in sports and entertainment broadcasting four months after the two began exploring options for the same.
On Wednesday, Bodhi Tree Systems, a platform promoted by Lupa Systems and Shankar, said it was investing Rs 13,500 crore in Viacom18, a JV between RIL's TV18 and ViacomCBS, now rebranded as Paramount Global.
Reliance Projects & Property Management Services, a subsidiary of RIL, would invest an additional Rs 1,645 crore in the company. The JioCinema app would be transferred to Viacom18 as part of the deal, a statement said, as sought to become a streaming-first major. Viacom18 owns and operates the suite of Colors TV channels and OTT platform VOOT.
The partnership between RIL and Lupa comes as they prepare to bid for the media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the 2023-27 seasons. The auction is slated to be conducted in June. Viacom18 launched its sports channel Sports18 last week, as a first step in its foray into sports broadcasting in India.
Nitin Kukreja, managing director, India, at Lupa Systems, is likely to be named the chief executive officer of the new venture, informed sources said.
Bodhi Tree Systems, which is leading a fund raise with a consortium of investors for the proposed Rs 13,500-crore investment in Viacom18, intends to pick up a 39 per cent stake in Viacom18 from ViacomCBS, which has a 49 per cent stake, informed sources said. RIL, which has a 51 per cent stake through TV18, a subsidiary of Network18, will retain its shareholding.
Apart from Kukreja, who has a strong background in sports broadcasting, having been CEO of Star Sports in 2016, Viacom18 has also appointed Anil Jayaraj, also formerly with Star Sports, as the head of its sports business.
Viacom18 has also picked up the tender document for the IPL media rights auction along with competitors such as Disney-Star, Sony, Zee and Amazon, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) looks to reap a windfall by setting nearly Rs 33,000 crore as the combined reserve price for the rights under four packages.
The competition is expected to be fierce as Disney-Star looks to retain the media rights for television and digital. RIL-Lupa will also compete with Sony along with Zee, with whom it is merging, and Amazon.
As the former boss of Star India and then Disney, Shankar played a key role in pushing Disney-Star into sports. Star grabbed the media and digital rights for the IPL from Sony during Shankar’s tenure by paying double the amount that Sony had paid in the first media rights auction for half the number of years. Star also paid Rs 11,880 crore to win the bid for ICC tournaments for eight years.
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU