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Tag: Viacom CBS

  • Uday Shankar, James Murdoch to acquire 40% stake in Viacom18: Reports

    Uday Shankar, James Murdoch to acquire 40% stake in Viacom18: Reports

    Mumbai: Lupa India, the investment company set up by former Star & Disney India chairman Uday Shankar and his boss from Star James Murdoch, is under negotiations for picking up a 40 per cent stake in Viacom 18, say media reports.

    Viacom 18, which runs television and digital entertainment channels, is currently a joint venture by Reliance Industries Ltd’s TV 18 (51 per cent) and Viacom CBS (49 per cent). With this deal, the latter is expected to turn into a minority player with 10 per cent stake, while RIL will retain its share.

    Lupa India is reportedly investing Rs 12,000 crore in Viacom18, the reports said. Most of the investment is said to be through the primary infusion of funds that will be used to build the company’s sports and entertainment verticals across both the broadcasting and digital businesses.

    According to reports, Uday Shankar will play a key role in the operations of Viacom 18 as the media conglomerate looks to enter the big league of sports business. He was instrumental in establishing Star as a formidable player in sports broadcasting. As the then CEO, he usurped the IPL rights from Sony in 2017 by paying double the amount (Rs 16,347 crore) for half the number of years. Star had also paid Rs 11,880 crore to win the bid for ICC tournaments for a period of eight years.

    With mounting consolidation in the media broadcasting sector, the focus of the industry has shifted to sports, especially cricket, and digital as a whole. While Viacom18’s sports portfolio today includes NBA (National Basketball Association), FIFA World Cup 2022, Italy’s popular football league Serie A, the Spanish football league LaLiga, ATP Masters (tennis) and Abu Dhabi T10 (cricket), winning the rights to the most popular cricketing event, the IPL rights, seems crucial for the broadcaster to be able to take on the Disney-Star and Zee-Sony juggernaut.

    In a bid to further build its sports vertical, in September, Viacom 18 appointed former Star Sports EVP Anil Jayraj as CEO-sports. The other two key appointments made in December were that of Siddharth Sharma (former Star Sports SVP) as EVP – sports and Mallika Petkar (former Disney+ Hotstar – head of SMB growth strategy) as SVP- sports.  

    Two major cricket broadcasting rights including the five-year broadcasting and digital rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the eight-year contract for broadcasting and digital rights for various World Cup championships held by the International Cricket Council (ICC) will be auctioned this year.

  • Media mogul Sumner Redstone dies at 97

    Media mogul Sumner Redstone dies at 97

    KOLKATA: The man who ruled over media for decades and is believed to have coined the famous cliche ‘Content is King’, Sumner Redstone, died on 11 August at the age of 97. The cause of his death was not mentioned.

    The Harvard-educated media mogul is the pioneer of multiplex model in the 1960s and turned it into a multi-billion-dollar media empire. He started the trend of bringing movies into shopping malls as well as more than one screen at the same site. Following the success in theatres, he started investing in movie companies. 

    Later in the mid-1980s, when he realised the rapidly increasing value of cable television, he went after Viacom. He bought Viacom for $3.4 billion in 1987 and later he acquired Paramount for more than $10 billion. He did not stop there. His quest for content led him to add CBS to the portfolio in 1999 in a deal valued at $37 billion. As he once said, “I’ve always wanted to win” was not a vague motivational talk as his acquisition of Viacom has mostly borrowed money, a risk very few could take.

    The student of law, his knowledge often reflected throughout his life whenever there was a legal battle to expand or save his empire. Not only is his career in media colourful but he has also been a rockstar everywhere. He worked with an elite US Army unit that cracked Japanese codes during World War Two while he was a student at Harvard. After he earned his law course, he successfully pleaded a case before the US Supreme Court. 

    Redstone always boasted that he never wanted to retire. But in the later years of his life, his health condition made investors, shareholders question if he was fit for the responsibilities anymore. In 2016, he stepped down as executive chairman of CBS. His adventurous ride in media was depicted by himself in one of the most spectacular business autobiographies “A Passion to Win.”

    “Sumner Redstone was a brilliant visionary, operator and dealmaker, who single-handedly transformed a family-owned drive-in theatre company into a global media portfolio,” said ViacomCBS president and CEO Bob Bakish.

    “He was a force of nature and fierce competitor, who leaves behind a profound legacy in both business and philanthropy. ViacomCBS will remember Sumner for his unparalleled passion to win, his endless intellectual curiosity, and his complete dedication to the company. We extend our deepest sympathies to the Redstone family today,” he added.

    Redstone’s later years were full of public disputes with his family members as well as former girlfriends. To a better ending, his daughter Shari E Redstone, who once wanted to go on a different path, gradually took control over the giant business.

    "My father led an extraordinary life that not only shaped entertainment as we know it today but created an incredible family legacy. Through it all, we shared a great love for one another and he was a wonderful father, grandfather and great-grandfather. I am so proud to be his daughter and I will miss him always," she shared in a statement: