©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Disney and Reliance logos are seen in this illustration taken December 15, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian oil-telecommunications conglomerate Reliance Industries is in talks to buy a 29.8% stake in satellite TV and subscription video streaming service provider Tata Play from Walt Disney (NYSE:), the Business Standard newspaper reported Thursday, citing sources close to the development.
If the talks are successful, it would be the first collaboration between the Tata Group and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate, allowing Reliance to offer its full JioCinema content in Tata Play offerings for its customers, the report added.
Reliance and Disney did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, while a spokesperson for Tata Play declined to comment.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Reliance is close to merging its media businesses in India with Disney with a 51%-54% stake. The deal values the American giant’s Indian assets at $3.5 billion
Bodhi Tree, a joint venture between James Murdoch and former top Disney executive Uday Shankar, will also take a stake of around 9% in the new merged entity. Disney will own about 40%.
Tata Sons, the parent company of the Tata Group, currently owns a majority stake of 50.2% in Tata Play. In addition to Disney, the remaining shares are held by Singapore’s state investment firm Temasek, the report added.
(This story has been refiled to remove extraneous text from paragraph 6)