Viacom18 Media Private Limited

Logo used since 2007
Company type	Joint venture
Traded as	Viacom18
Industry	Media conglomerate
Founded	November 2007; 17 years ago (2007-11)
Headquarters	Lower Parel,Mumbai,Maharashtra,India[1]
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Kevin Vaz (CEO - Entertainment) Kiran Mani (CEO - Digital) and Sanjog Gupta (CEO - Sports)
Owners	Reliance Industries (70.49%) Network18 Group (13.54%) Bodhi Tree Systems (15.97%)
Divisions	JioStar (46.82%)
Website	viacom18.com

Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an independent Indianmedia conglomerate, part ofJio Star. It is owned byReliance Industries and Bodhi Tree Systems. The Organisation had various channels and content production studios in India. Following the merger of its assets with Disney Star, it continues to be the largest shareholder in the newly formed merged entity.^[2]

In January 2010, Viacom18 went international with the launch ofColors in the United States. The channel is called Aapka Colors. In July 2010, it got into 50/50 distribution joint venture withSun Network to form Sun 18.^[3]

In December 2011, Viacom18 launchedNickelodeon Sonic, targeting childrens.^[4]

ETV Network acquisition and rebranding 2014–2015

In January 2014, TV18 acquired the non-Telugu language TV assets ofETV Network for ₹2,053crore, with a permission to use ETV brand name.^[5]

In March 2015, Viacom18 decided to rebrand all five non-Telugu languageETV regional general entertainment channels.ETV Marathi, ETV Gujarati,ETV Kannada,ETV Bangla, and ETV Odia were rebranded intoColors Marathi, Colors Gujarati,Colors Kannada,Colors Bangla, andColors Odia respectively.^[6]

Viacom's share acquisition 2018–2019

The company also ownsViacom18 Studios. On 31 January 2018, TV18 announced its acquisition of Viacom's majority in the joint venture, taking operational control and leaving Viacom with a minority interest.^[7] On 1 October 2019, Viacom18 launched Colors HD inMalaysia onAstro Malaysia; every serial will be served withMalay and English subtitles.^{[citation needed]}

More recently, the company had signed a deal with the National Basketball Association in order to deliver live NBA games to all of their own networks.^[8]

In June 2020,Sony's Indian unitSony Pictures Networks was in talks with Viacom18 about a merger, with the talks getting advanced much later. If the merger was successful, Sony would be a 74% shareholder in the merged company.^[9] However, in October 2020,Reliance Industries,^[10] the majority share holder in Viacom18, called off the merger.^[11][12]

In June 2021,^[13] reports stated Viacom18 andZee Entertainment Enterprises were reportedly in talks about a merger.^[14] However, Zee denied any talks about a potential merger with Viacom18,^[15] later entering talks withSony Pictures Networks, which was also in talks about a merger with Viacom18 earlier.^[16]

In January 2022, there were reports that Lupa India, an investment company set up byUday Shankar andJames Murdoch, were in the final stages of picking up a 39% stake in Viacom18.^[17] thereby turning Paramount Global into a minority shareholder with a 10% share in the company.^[18] In April 2022, Reliance announced that Bodhi Tree Systems, a company founded by Shankar and Murdoch with backing from theQatar Investment Authority,^[19] would make a US$1.8 billion investment in Viacom18 to "jointly build India's leading entertainment platform and pioneer the Indian media landscape's transformation to a 'streaming-first' approach." As part of the venture,JioCinema—a streaming service owned by Reliance's mobile operatorJio—would be brought under Viacom18. Paramount would remain a stakeholder and content partner. The deal was approved by theCompetition Commission of India (CCI) in September 2022.^[20][21] The sale was completed on 17 April 2023, with Bodhi Tree acquiring a 13.08% stake in the venture, and diluting Paramount Global's stake to 13.01%.^[22]

In December 2023, it was announced thatThe Walt Disney Company India and Reliance had signed a non-binding term sheet for a merger. According to its 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 going to be created to absorbDisney Star through astock swap,^[23] pending ratification and regulatory approval.^{[24][25][26][27]}

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 Disney Star with Disney holding a 36.84% stake in the combined entity, which would bring together assets such as linear television entertainment channelsStarPlus,Colors TV and theStar Gold Network, sports channelsStar Sports andSports18 and the streaming servicesJioCinema andDisney+ Hotstar withNita Ambani serving as the chairperson of the joint venture, withUday Shankar serving as vice chairperson with the deal giving 16.34% to Reliance and 46.82% to Viacom18^[28] and is expected to close sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 pending regulatory approval.^[29][30]

In March 2024, it was reported thatParamount Global was looking to sell its 13.01% stake in Viacom18 to Reliance, which already owned a 73.91% share viaTV18.^[31] AlthoughBloomberg 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.^[32]

On May 14, 2024, It was reported the deal between Disney and Reliance was approved byNational Company Law Tribunal, with the JioCinema streaming service being moved to the Digital18 unit as part of the merger.^[33][34]

On 28 August 2024, the CCI has approved the merger of Disney+ Hotstar with Viacom18.^[35]

On 28 September 2024, the Central government gave a nod to the transfer of the non-news and current affairs TV channels held by Viacom18 to Star India subject to conditions laid by the Competition Commission of India.

On 14 November 2024, Reliance Industries Limited issued a media release stating that the merger of Viacom18 with Star India had become effective.^[36][2]

Following are the channels that Viacom18 owned, part of JioStar

• Paramount International Networks
• Paramount Networks EMEAA
• Network18 Group

• Official Site

• Viacom 18
• Television stations in Mumbai
• Mass media companies based in Mumbai
• Network18 Group
• Paramount International Networks
• Television production companies of India
• Mass media companies established in 2007
• Indian companies established in 2007
• Multinational joint-venture companies
• Indian subsidiaries of foreign companies
• 2007 establishments in Maharashtra
• Joint ventures
• Former Paramount Global subsidiaries

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from December 2018
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2019