Is Disney in talks with Adani and Maran about a possible sale of its Indian assets?

The Walt Disney Company is in the early stages of talks with potential buyers for its streaming and television business in India. According to a report by Bloomberg, Gautam Adani, Kalanithi Maran and others have been approached by media companies.

Disney’s senior executives are also working with private equity funds to explore a range of options, including selling part of the company’s India operations and acquiring sports rights and regional streaming services such as Disney+Hotstar. This could include the sale of a comprehensive package of assets. According to reports, there were also talks to sell assets to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries.

Back in July, the Wall Street Journal reported that Disney was exploring strategic options for its India operations, reflecting Star India’s changing fortunes following Disney’s acquisition of Fox’s entertainment assets. The report said options could include a joint venture or sale.

Disney and its competitors are making a costly transition to streaming platforms and away from traditional television companies. To make that transition, Disney paid $71.3 billion in 2019 to acquire 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets. At the time, Star India stood out as one of Fox’s prized assets and played a key role in Disney’s strategy to expand its nascent streaming business around the world.

The acquisition gave Disney broadcast and streaming rights to Indian Premier League cricket matches, as well as numerous multilingual television channels and a stake in a Bollywood film production company. Hotstar, which once boasted an impressive milestone of 150 million monthly active users, had seen continued growth driven primarily by exclusive streaming rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) .

However, this growing user base turned into a serious challenge when Hotstar lost the IPL streaming rights to Reliance’s JioCinema. This setback was a major setback for Disney+ Hotstar, as the loss of such a major sporting event meant a potential decline in user engagement and the risk of losing a significant portion of its loyal viewers.