Reliance Corners Disney Star On All Fronts Amid Survival Wars

Poaching the media rights of yet another tournament from Disney Star, Reliance Industries-backed Viacom18 now has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Indian Super League (ISL) until FY25 under its belt. 

Viacom18 has secured the rights for an undisclosed amount for both digital and TV for the upcoming two seasons. Reliance’s streaming arm JioCinema will stream the football matches of the league for free on its app.

Sources told Livemint that Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) received only two bids during the auction process, and the rights were awarded at the base price set by the body.

It was previously reported that FSDL had kept INR 275 Cr as the base price per year (INR 550 Cr for two years) with an offer to extend the tenure of the media rights by up to three more years.

“Viacom18’s digital streaming platform JioCinema, which will stream ISL for free, has brought a pioneering viewing experience through live streaming of properties such as the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and the TATA IPL and it will continue to bring a similar experience for ISL,” said FSDL in a statement. 

“Winning the streaming and broadcast rights to the ISL is a big step forward for us in the direction of building a glittering stable of footballing action… We believe this is an exciting time in Indian football and through our extensive presentation of the league we aim to stoke a renewed interest in the heart of every Indian football lover,” said a Viacom18 spokesperson.

The development follows reports that Disney Star had opted out of the bidding race, after a decade-long association, owing to sustained losses and dwindling viewership of the tournament. 

Disney Star’s decade-long rights deal came to a close this year, prompting FSDL to auction the rights. Prior to this, reports anticipated that since Reliance owns a majority 65% stake in FSDL, the deal would likely go to the conglomerate. 

With this, Reliance has snatched the media rights of yet another tournament from Disney Star. Earlier, the oil-to-telecom major poached the digital rights of IPL as well as media rights of domestic and international matches of the Indian cricket team’s matches. 

In the past few months, JioCinema has acquired the broadcast rights of almost all major tournaments in India, resulting in the platform emerging as the biggest host of digital sports properties in the country. It also inked agreements with HBO and NBCUniversal to bring premium English content libraries to its streaming platform, taking another major allure of Disney+ Hotstar. 

With JioCinema raking in paid users and viewership by the millions, the next offensive move of the Reliance-backed streaming giant remains to be seen. For now, streaming wars continue as players vie for a pie of the homegrown OTT market, which is projected to rise to a size of $12.5 Bn by 2030.