History
Establishment
The Walt Disney Company India was initially established as a joint venture partnership between The Walt Disney Company and Modi Enterprises in August 1993 as a licensing agreement. Disney received approval in October 2001 from the Indian Foreign Investment Promotion Board to establish a fully owned subsidiary to launch the Disney channel in India. Despite the approval for the subsidiary, its joint venture partner, Modi Enterprises, protested because of similarities to their joint venture. At the end of the 10-year licensing agreement in 2003, Modi enterprises and Disney were unable to reach a new agreement, dissolving the joint venture in August 2003.[2]
In September 2003, Walt Disney Television International Asia Pacific assumed control for the distribution of content through channels like Star Movies, AXN and HBO including 29 hours of children's programming weekly through channels such as DD Metro, Eenadu, SET, Star Plus and Star World.[3]
Fully owned subsidiary
The Walt Disney Company (India) Private Limited began operations in July 2004 and is based in Mumbai.[4] On December 17, 2004, Walt Disney Television International India launched the Disney Channel and Toon Disney Channel with five language feeds (English, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, and Tamil). The channels were to be distributed by the Star Group.[5][6][7] In December of 2004, with UTV Indiagames as a partner, Disney Interactive released Disney games, wallpapers, and ringtones which are available on Bharti Airtel. In 2005, Disney Consumer Products (DCP) began working with various Indian retail outlets to establish Disney Corners within the outlets to sell licensed merchandise.[8] In August, Funskool India and Disney entered into a contract for Funskool to sell Disney Princess products in India.[9]
In January 2007, Disney India and Yash Raj Films agreed to co-produce and co-finance a yearly animated film for the Indian market. Both companies work together on merchandising and games for the films.[10]
In July 2006, Disney India acquired a controlling stake in Hungama TV from UTV Software Communications Limited while also taking a 14.9% share in UTV.[11] In 2008, the company took an additional 17.5% stake in UTV.[12]
On September 26, 2006, the Disney Jeans brand was launched under license to Indus Clothing, which planned to open 30 Disney Jeans stores by the end of 2007.[13] In October, Disney Consumer Products (DCP) franchised the rights to set up 150 Disney Artist brand stores under the Disney Artist brand to Ravi Jaipuria Corporation for a period of 5 years. The stores were to sell greeting cards, stationery, arts, crafts, and party products in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Maldives featuring Disney characters.[14]
Disney Publishing Worldwide, a division of Walt Disney India, announced a licensing agreement in April 2009 with local publisher Junior Diamond to publish Disney comics in English and Hindi.[15] Jetix/Toon Disney was changed to Disney XD on November 14 November 2009.[7]
In May 2011, Disney and UTV agreed to co-produce Disney-branded family films with creative functions handled jointly. UTV produces, markets, and distributes the films.[4] In July 2011, Walt Disney Company (South East Asia) Pvt Ltd. offered to purchase public shareholders stakes with the objective of increasing their ownership. In February 2012, Disney announced the completion of the acquisition of UTV. UTV Chief Executive Officer Ronnie Screwvala replaced Mahesh Samat as managing director of The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) India.[16]
Disney launched Disney Junior, a channel for preschool kids.[17] Disney India launched its live Entertainment operations in 2015 with the production of Beauty and the Beast, a musical to be shown from October to December in Mumbai and Delhi.[18]
Disney India indicated in August 2016 that it was shutting down UTV Motion Pictures, its Hindi film production unit, and focusing on the distribution of its Hollywood films. Disney India managing director Siddharth Roy Kapur also indicated he would let his contract lapse on January 1, 2017.[19] On November 28, 2016, Mahesh Samat was to return as managing director, four years after he left the company.[20]
On September 12, 2017, Walt Disney International announced a restructuring of its business in Asia and that Mahesh Samat is to lead the new Disney South Asia division, combining India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.[21]
On October 5, 2017, The Walt Disney Company India officially announced the launch of Disney International HD on October 29. The channel was to be the exclusive home to live-action Disney Channel original content.[22] The channel will not have any animation content and will be replacing Bindass Play.[23]
Disney launched its second HD channel, UTV HD, on October 21 October 2018, showing Bollywood and Hollywood films in Hindi. It premiered a new movie every Friday.[24]
On November 7, 2017, Disney announced the promotion of Abhishek Maheshwari as country head for India. He was to report to Mahesh Samat, Walt Disney International South Asia managing director.[25]
On December 14, 2017, Disney announced its intent to acquire 21st Century Fox–parent company of rival Star India and streaming service Hotstar–for US$52.4 billion.[26][27]
Consumers Products licensed DLF Brands for Disney & Me stores that opened in April 2018.[28] The Live Entertainment division's second musical, Aladdin, premiered on April 20, 2018.[29]
On December 13, 2018, Disney announced Uday Shankar, who serves as president of Fox Asia and chairman of Star India, would lead Disney's Asia Pacific region and chairman of Disney India after the acquisition of 21st Century Fox closes.[30] On April 1, 2019, Uday Shankar, president of Disney Asia Pacific, announced the restructuring of the complete entity of Star India and Disney, while Sanjay Gupta will lead the Indian businesses and head the Disney Studios India and Fox Star Studios in India, directly reporting to Uday Shankar who is also Chairman of Star and Disney India.[31] Gupta resigned as country head in November 2019, while UTV channels were merged into the Star India bouquet.[32]
Disney XD was replaced with Marvel HQ channel on January 20, 2019 at noon.[33] Star India networks took over the distribution of Disney channels in July 2019. Disney Channel, Hungama TV, Marvel HQ and Disney Junior became part of the Disney Kids Pack while Bindass and Disney International HD became part of the Star Value Pack.[34] Later, in February 2020, Star Gold underwent a branding overhaul, while its sister channel Movies OK was replaced by Star Gold 2.
On December 30, 2020, Disney announced that the Star branding will be replaced with Utsav from 1 February in the Netherlands.[35]
On January 26, 2022, Tata Sky was rebranded into Tata Play.[36]
Marvel HQ was replaced with the Super Hungama channel on March 1, 2022.[37]
On April 14, 2022, The Walt Disney Company India rebranded Star India to Disney Star.[38]
On May 27, 2022, Fox Star Studios was renamed Star Studios, as part of the removal of the "Fox" name from the studios that had been acquired from 21st Century Fox by Disney.[39]
Following a restructuring paradigm, Disney announced plans to shut down the UTV brand, with UTV Movies, UTV HD and UTV Action being replaced respectively by Star Gold Romance, the HD feed of Star Gold 2 and Star Gold Thrills.[40]
In April 2023, Head of Network Entertainment Kevin Vaz left the company to join Viacom18 as CEO of TV Business.[41][42]
In July 2023, The Walt Disney Company began exploring strategic options for their businesses in India, such as forming a joint venture or selling it completely; the company had major domestic cricket rights to competitors, which had weakened the Disney+ Hotstar service.[43]
Between September and October 2023, Disney held preliminary talks with Reliance Industries, Adani Group, Sun Group, Blackstone, and Sony Pictures Networks India.[44][45][46] In October 2023, it was reported that Disney was nearing a cash and stock deal with Reliance Industries for the sale of its operations in India, including a controlling stake in Disney Star. The assets Reliance will acquire are reportedly valued at around US$7–8 billion (valuing the entire division at US$10 billion), and a transaction could be announced as early as November.[47]
Although the CEO of Disney, Robert Iger, refuted such claims at first, it was announced in December 2023 that Disney 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 will be created to absorb Disney Star through a stock swap. The deal is expected to be completed by February 2024, pending ratification and regulatory approval, although Reliance aims to complete it by the end of January.[48][49][50]
In February 2024, The Walt Disney Company and Reliance Industries 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[51] and is expected to close sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 pending regulatory approval.[52][53]
