Comcast is in the final leg of negotiations to buy stake in Zee Media, one of India's biggest media & entertainment (M&E) companies, according to reports. Zee, in dire straits, would prefer to complete the deal with the Comcast-led consortium before September, before its due date for thousands of crores it has to pay lenders.
You'd be forgiven if you responded, Comcast who? Until recently, if you were asked to name three of the biggest media companies in the country, chances are that most of you will start naming the biggest newspaper or TV companies around. But, that is not the case anymore. India's three biggest M&E conglomorates right now, going by revenue, are Bennett & Coleman (BCCL), Disney, and, once the Zee-takeover is complete, Comcast. More significantly, the top media houses are now a mix of technology-based media firms, companies that span the gamut of print and the internet, and even those in the movie exhibition business (PVR).
To put matters in perspective, BCCL is the company that owns Times of India, Times Now and Times Internet, among other brands. Disney is that same maker of cartoons you enjoyed as a child. They now own the Star TV network, including the nation's streaming platform (OTT) leader Hotstar, by virtue of their global acquisition of media baron Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox, which was completed earlier this year.
And Comcast? It is an American behemoth with presence in telecom, cable TV and internet service. Its best known channels include NBC, as well as cable channels like CNBC and E! The world's second largest broadcast and cable TV company, Comcast recently became the biggest media company in Europe, by virtue of its takeover of the Sky network, which operates across five countries in the continent.
With the Chinese media scene out of bounds for global players, acquiring a predominant TV platform like Zee could mean something close to world domination for Comcast—Zee group is one of India's predominant TV bouquets. It owns more than 40 satellite channels spread across entertainment, news, lifestyle and information genres. It also has interests in DTH service (Dish, though that is reportedly being sold separately to Bharti Airtel) as well as interests in film production, music and OTT.
But, Disney will not go down easy. Disney's portfolio not only includes big ticket satellite channels like The Disney Channel, ESPN, National Geographic and FX, its acquisition of Star India makes it a leading player in the nation's media scene—Star has, in recent years, been just behind BCCL in market revenues.
That is, of course, if you do not consider Google and Facebook as media companies. Primarily from banner ads on search, Google made more than Rs 9,000 crores last year from India. That would make it the fourth largest media entity in the country, even if it actually does not produce any content.