Viacom18

Viacom18 Media Private Limited
Company typeJoint venture
IndustryTelevision
FoundedNovember 2007; 16 years ago (2007-11)
HeadquartersMumbai, Maharashtra, India
Key people
Jyoti Deshpande (CEO)
OwnersTV18 (73.91%)
Bodhi Tree Systems (13.08%)
Paramount Networks EMEAA (13.01%)
ParentNetwork 18
SubsidiariesViacom18 US
Viacom18 Media
Viacom18 Digital Ventures
Roptonal
The Indian Film Company
Viacom18 Studios
JioCinema
WebsiteViacom18.com

Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media company based in Mumbai, India. Founded in 2007 by the MTV Networks Europe division (now Paramount Networks EMEAA), it later became a joint venture between TV18 and Viacom (now Paramount Global) in 2014, with TV18 becoming the majority shareholder in the company since April 2023, with Paramount Networks EMEAA and Bodhi Tree Systems owning minority stakes. The company owns and operates various channels, as well as content production studios in India.

History

Early history and founding

In January 2010, Viacom18 went international with the launch of Colors in United States. The channel is called Aapka Colors. In July 2010, it got into 50/50 distribution joint venture with Sun Network to form Sun 18.

In December 2011, Viacom18 launched Nickelodeon Sonic, targeting young adults.

In January 2014, TV18 acquired the non-Telugu language TV assets of ETV Network for ₹2,053 crore, with a permission to use ETV brand name.

In March 2015, Viacom18 decided to rebrand all five non-Telugu language ETV regional general entertainment channels. ETV Marathi, ETV Gujarati, ETV Kannada, ETV Bangla, and ETV Odia were rebranded into Colors Marathi, Colors Gujarati, Colors Kannada, Colors Bangla, and Colors Odia respectively.

The company also owns Viacom18 Studios. On 31 January 2018, TV18 announced its acquisition of Viacom's majority in the joint venture, taking operational control and leaving Viacom with minority interest. On 1 October 2019, Viacom18 launched Colors HD in Malaysia on Astro Malaysia; every serial will be served with Malay and English subtitles.[citation needed]

More recently, the company had signed a deal with the National Basketball Association in order to deliver live NBA games to all of their own networks.

Attempted mergers with Sony and Zee, partnership with Bodhi Tree Systems

In June 2020, Sony's Indian unit Sony Pictures Networks was in talks with Viacom18 about a merger, with the talks getting advanced much later. If the merger was successful, Sony would be 74% shareholder in the merged company. However, in October 2020, Reliance Industries, the majority share holder in Viacom18, called off the merger.

In June 2021, reports stated Viacom18 and Zee Entertainment Enterprises were reportedly in talks about a merger. However, Zee denied any talks about a potential merger with Viacom18, later entering talks with Sony Pictures Networks, which was also in talks about a merger with Viacom18 earlier.

In January 2022, there were reports that Lupa India, an investment company set up by Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, were in the final stages of picking up a 39% stake in Viacom18. thereby turning Paramount Global into a minority shareholder with a 10% share in the company. In April 2022, Reliance announced that Bodhi Tree Systems, a company founded by Shankar and Murdoch with backing from the Qatar Investment Authority, would make a US$1.8 billion investment in Viacom18 to "jointly build India’s leading entertainment platform and pioneer the Indian media landscape's transformation to a ‘streaming-first’ approach." As part of the venture, JioCinema—a streaming service owned by Reliance's mobile operator Jio—would be brought under Viacom18. Paramount would remain a stakeholder and content partner. The deal was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in September 2022. The sale was completed on 17 April 2023, with Bodhi Tree acquiring a 13.08% stake in the venture, and diluting Paramount Global's stake to 13.01%.

Merger with Disney Star

In December 2023, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company and Reliance had signed a non-binding term sheet for a merger. According to its terms, Reliance would hold a 51% in the merged company in cash and stock, while Disney would own the remaining 49%. For purposes of the merger, a subsidiary of Viacom18 was going to be created to absorb Disney Star through a stock swap, pending ratification and regulatory approval.

In February 2024, Disney and Reliance reached a deal to merge their streaming and television assets, with the joint venture valued at $8.5 billion including synergies. As part of the deal, Viacom18 would be merged into Disney Star with Disney holding a 36.84% stake in the combined entity, which would bring together assets such as linear television entertainment channels StarPlus, Colors TV and the Star Gold Network, sports channels Star Sports and Sports18 and the streaming services JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar with Nita Ambani serving as the chairperson of the joint venture, with Uday Shankar serving as vice chairperson with the deal giving 16.34% to Reliance and 46.82% to Viacom18 and is expected to close sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 pending regulatory approval.

In March 2024, it was reported that Paramount Global was looking to sell its 13.01% stake in Viacom18 to Reliance, which already owned a 73.91% share via TV18. Although Bloomberg News reported that the deal was unlikely to close, the deal was confirmed a week later for $517 million, its closure subject to regulatory approval and the completion of the joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney. Paramount will however continue to license its content to the company.

Owned channels

On-air channels

Following are the distribution channels available from TV18:

Channel Launched Language Category SD/HD availability Notes
Colors TV 2008 Hindi General Entertainment SD+HD
Colors Rishtey 2014 SD Previously Rishtey
Colors Cineplex 2016 Movies SD+HD Formerly Rishtey Cineplex (original)
Colors Cineplex Bollywood 2021 SD
Colors Cineplex Superhits 2022 Previously Rishtey Cineplex (relaunch)
MTV 1996 Youth SD+HD Formerly MTV HD+
MTV Beats 2016 Music Formerly MTV Indies
Sports18 Khel 2022 Sports SD
Colors Infinity 2015 English General Entertainment SD+HD
Comedy Central 2012
VH1 2005 Music
Sports18 1 2022 Sports
Sports18 2 2023 SD
Sports18 3
Nickelodeon (Nick) 1999 Hindi
Tamil
Telugu
Malayalam
Bengali
Marathi
Gujarati
Kannada
Kids
Nickelodeon Sonic 2011
Nick Jr. 2012 Hindi
English
Nickelodeon HD+ (NickHD+) 2015 HD
History TV18 2011 Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi Information SD+HD Joint Venture with A&E Networks
Colors Bangla 2000 Bengali General Entertainment Previously known as ETV Bangla
Colors Bangla Cinema 2019 Movies SD
Colors Gujarati 2002 Gujarati General Entertainment Previously known as ETV Gujarati
Colors Gujarati Cinema 2019 Movies
Colors Marathi 2000 Marathi General Entertainment SD+HD Previously known as ETV Marathi
Colors Odia 2002 Odia SD Previously known as ETV Odia
Colors Kannada 2000 Kannada SD+HD Previously known as ETV Kannada
Colors Super 2016 SD
Colors Kannada Cinema 2018 Movies
Colors Tamil Tamil General Entertainment SD+HD

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-03-23 07:06 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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