Disney mulls sale of Indian operation

Disney is expected to harden its focus on its core Disney+ service in Western markets, amid reports of a sale of its Indian streaming and television business to potential buyers including Reliance Industries. 

Why Disney’s India business matters

Despite the huge addressable market in India, recent evidence of its price-consciousness could push Disney to focus on markets in which it can defend higher prices with less costly properties than sport. 

What’s going on

Bloomberg first reported news of talks based on sources close to the action. It is unclear yet whether the entire Disney Star business or just a selection of assets are on the table. 

The news follows the loss of important digital sporting rights in the country, not least the IPL, which dampened its most recent results as many viewers looked elsewhere. This left its TV-only pitch to advertisers wanting, according to some observers.

Since then, Reliance’s advertising-first model saw viewers switch to a mobile-only deal, while Disney has also shifted its cricket strategy, but it now appears to be rethinking the whole endeavour.

In context

Elsewhere, the company is reported to be exploring the offload of some of its linear channels like the US-based ABC to local broadcast company Nexstar. 

A pivot to streaming makes sense, given the company’s heavy investment in the channel and the slowing of linear television. But it would likely entail some pain in the short term, of the kind seen during its extended dispute with DirecTV, now concluded, as broadcasters resist a shift to streaming paywalls. 

Sourced from Bloomberg, The Streamable, WARC