CCI warns Disney, Reliance media merger could harm competition: Report | Company News
The merged company, which will be majority owned by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, will have lucrative rights. | Photo: Pexels
India’s antitrust body has reached an initial assessment that the $8.5 billion India merger of Reliance and Walt Disney media assets harms competition due to their power over cricket broadcast rights, four sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
In the biggest setback so far to their planned merger, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has privately told Disney and Reliance its view and asked the companies to explain why an investigation shouldn’t be ordered, one of the sources said.
Reliance, Disney and CCI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. All sources declined to be named as the CCI process is confidential.
“Cricket is the biggest pain point for the CCI,” said one of the sources.
The merged company, which will be majority owned by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, will have lucrative rights worth billions of dollars for the broadcast of cricket, raising fears over pricing power and its grip over advertisers.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Aug 20 2024 | 3:51 PM IST
