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New Delhi: In a deal that could reshape the entertainment business globally, Walt Disney Co. has
agreed to buy Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. for about $52.4 billion in stock on Thursday.
In India, the deal means that Murdoch-owned Star India’s businesses, including 49 entertainment
channels and 10 sports channels would be absorbed by Disney along with its digital streaming
platform Hotstar. Not just that, Disney would also acquire Star’s stake in direct-to-home platform
Tata Sky in India. This would catapult Disney, currently known for its children’s channels and
distribution of Hollywood films, into India’s biggest broadcaster.
“The combined entity can bring many synergies to the table and leverage advertising, distribution,
licensing and over-the-top (OTT) revenues besides saving costs on some fronts. The merger will make
Disney a formidable powerhouse in the region,” Ten days ago, 21st Century Fox named Uday
Shankar, chairman and chief executive of Star India Pvt. Ltd, as president, 21st Century Fox for the
Asia region. In September, Star India Pvt. Ltd won television, digital, Indian and global media rights
to the India Premier League (IPL) for the next five seasons for Rs16,347.50 crore. The company also
operates a movie production and distribution company since 2009.
(https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/media/entertainment/media/star-india-chairman-
uday-shankar-to-head-disney-star-merged-entity-in-india/articleshow/67081427.cms)
MUMBAI: Uday Shankar, currently chairman and CEO of Star India and president of 21st Century
Fox, Asia, will lead the India and Asia Pacific business of The Walt Disney Company once it
completes the acquisition of 21st Century Fox’ assets. Disney, world’s largest entertainment
company, announced Thursday the new organisational structure of the direct-to-consumer and
international (DTCI) business, keeping executives of both companies in key leadership roles.
“The planned restructuring of our business units outside of the US will result in a stronger, more agile
organisation, one that is better able to pivot and capitalise on the many opportunities present in
today’s fast-changing and increasingly complex global marketplace,” said Kevin Mayer, chairman,
DTCI, at The Walt Disney Company.
In his new role, Shankar will report in to Mayer, while Luke Kang, EVP and MD, Greater China,
Japan and Korea; Kylie Watson-Wheeler, MD of Australia and New Zealand; and Chafic Najia, SVP
and MD of Middle East will report to Shankar. The other regions under DTCI – EMEA and Latin
America - will continue to be led by Rebecca Campbell and Diego Lerner, respectively.
In an internal memo, accessed by ET, Shankar wrote that December 27th will be Gupta’s last working
day in the company. “In order to create minimum disruption to the business, I have decided K
Madhavan, who has built out regional entertainment business, will now look after all our TV
businesses across markets and verticals,” Shankar wrote. All the senior executives who used to report
to Gupta, except those of Hotstar, will now report to Madhavan, who, in turn will report to Shankar.
Shankar also announced that Nitin Bawankule, who has recently taken charge of ad-sales for Hindi
speaking markets (HSM), sports and Hotstar, will have dual reporting – Madhavan for HSM and
sports and Shankar for Hotstar sales.
Disney officially revealed details of how it was planning the branding of “Star” internationally at
December’s Investor Day event, which will see Star added as a new sixth tier within Disney+ in
February in many regions including Europe, Australia, Canada and in Asia. At the same time, Star+ is
launching in Latin America as its own platform with live sports. With many Fox channels in Latin
America will also be rebranded “Star”.
According to Dutch television provider Ziggo, Disney will be rebranding its Hindi channels, Star Plus
and Star Gold channels in the Netherlands to Utsav Plus and Utsav Gold. This rebranding will be
taking effect from February 1st. The rebranding is being done so Disney can use the “Star” brand as
part of Disney+ in the Netherlands, which is coming on February 23rd.