Disney Star: Last News

Naman Ramachandran Disney Star has licenced Indian television broadcasting rights for men’s and under-19 tournaments conducted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd for four years. Last week, Disney Star had retained both digital and television rights from 2024 through 2027. ZEE was a bidder for those rights, Variety understands. Earlier, Disney Star had ceded digital rights to the lucrative Indian Premier League cricket tournament to a consortium led by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 and had retained only television rights. Disney Star will continue to be the exclusive home for streaming of all ICC tournaments in India via streamer Disney+ Hotstar. ICC has in-principle approved this arrangement, Disney Star said.

Naman Ramachandran Disney Star has won Indian TV and digital rights to both men’s and women’s global events conducted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 2024 through 2027. While the ICC did not disclose a value to the deal, it said that the “incredibly competitive” process “yielded a significant uplift to the rights fee from the previous cycle continuing the impressive growth and reach of cricket.” The rights to the previous cycle, valued at approximately $2.1 billion, were won by Star, then a Fox network, but those were for eight years and for worldwide rights, rather than India alone. The Indian market has grown exponentially since then. Winning the ICC rights is a coup for Disney Star, who recently ceded digital rights to the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament to a Viacom18 group backed by billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani, which paid some $3 billion. Disney Star paid $3.01 billion for broadcast rights.

Naman Ramachandran Sajith Sivanandan is joining Disney as executive VP and head of Disney+ Hotstar India, reporting into Rebecca Campbell, chair of Disney’s International content and operations group and K. Madhavan, president, Disney Star. Sivanandan will join in October from Google, where he is currently MD and business head, Google Pay and Next Billion User Initiatives, Asia Pacific.