Murdoch ally helps Ambani build media empire in India

SOHEE KIM PR SANJAI

ON A BREEZY April evening, around 45,000 IPL fans are packed into Wankhede Stadium to watch the home team Mumbai Indians battle the Rajasthan Royals.

Elsewhere in the city, hundreds of employees of Viacom18 Media are on different mission, transmitting the match in 12 languages and 20 camera angles across the world's most-populous country.

"We are targeting over 600 million people to come and watch," said Uday Shankar, the executive behind the effort.

Once an underdog dwarfed by foreign behemoths, Viacom18 and its JioCinema streaming service are poised to become the most powerful player in the $28 billion Indian media and entertainment industry. Reliance Industries, Viacom18's largest shareholder, has plans to merge the business with Walt Disney's India operations, adding dozens of cable TV channels and tens of millions of streaming subscribers in a deal valuing the combined enterprise at $8.5 billion.

With everything from local news to big Hollywood films the new firm aims to capture not just a bigger share of TV ad sales, but the growing digital revenue now going to tech giants like YouTube and Meta; Viacom18 could also become a broader rival to Amazon if it follows through on plans to integrate e-commerce into its streaming platform.