India's Tata Play, Airtel Digital TV Reportedly Near Merger

India's Tata Group and Bharti Group are close to merging their satellite TV businesses, creating a nearly $1.6 billion (roughly Rs. 13,918 crore) entity with the aim of tiding over the sustained migration of subscribers to digital streaming, Economic Times reported on Tuesday.

The merged entity is expected to be run by Bharti Airtel, which will likely hold between 52 percent-55 percent with the remaining held by Tata Play shareholders, including Walt Disney, the report said, citing sources.

Bharti Airtel, Tata Play and Disney did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments.

Tata Play, a 70:30 venture between Tata Sons and Disney, and Airtel had a combined 35 million paid subscribers as of last September, more than half the 60 million subscribers industry-wide at the time, according to a government report.

The two businesses are being approximately valued between 60 billion rupees ($690.76 million)-70 billion rupees ($805.89 million) each, with their revenue exceeding 70 billion rupees in fiscal 2024, ET reported.

The deal is the second major one in the sector since Dish TV merged with Videocon d2h in 2016 and follows the $8.5 billion (roughly Rs. 73,946 crore)-merger of Reliance Industries streaming media assets with Disney's Indian media assets last year.

Bharti Airtel shares were last up 1.7 percent on the day.

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