STORY: The proposed merger between the media assets of Walt Disney and Indian-owned Reliance Industries may have just been thrown a monkey wrench.
An initial assessment by India’s antitrust body of the proposed $8.5 billion deal has concluded that it could harm competition due to both parties’ power over cricket broadcast rights.
That’s according to four sources who spoke to Reuters on Tuesday.
It is the biggest setback so far for the planned Disney-Reliance merger, which aims to create India’s biggest entertainment player.
The combined company, which would be majority owned by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, would compete with Sony, Zee Entertainment, Netflix and Amazon, offering a combined 120 TV channels and two streaming services.
It would also have lucrative rights, worth billions of dollars, to broadcast cricket on TV and streaming platforms.
That’s prompted the Competition Commission of India, or CCI, to privately warn Disney and Reliance that their grip on India’s favorite sport may be too tight, raising fears over pricing power and the combined company’s potential sway over advertisers.
Cricket has a fanatical following in India, the world’s most populous country with an estimated 1.4 billion people.
The CCI has asked both companies to explain within 30 days why it should not order an investigation.
Reliance, Disney and the CCI did not respond to requests for comment.