Zee abandons $1.4 bn ICC cricket rights deal with Disney Star

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has walked out of a $1.4 billion deal with Disney Star to take over broadcasting rights to certain fixtures of International Cricket Council (ICC) for four years starting 2024, saying the deal was linked to the proposed merger with Sony Pictures Networks and that it does not intent to proceed with it.

Disney Star, which runs Walt Disney’s Indian operations, had bid $3 billion for ICC media rights on the back of its planned merger with Zee Entertainment. Against this other bidders like Viacom18 and Sony had offered bids worth $1.3-1.4 billion for the cricket telecasting rights.

Disney Hotstar was banking on its merger with Reliance for reviving its fortunes in India. Rtliance’s Jio Network, which enjoys a near monopoly in the OTT market, offers free streaming of Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches.

In fact, ZEEL missed on payment of the first installment of $200 million to Disney, and told the US company that it was cancelling the deal, say reports.

Disney Star has now become the first victim of the collapse of Zee's planned merger with Sony's India business.

According to Zee, the ICC TV contract with Disney Star was dependent on the successful completion of the Zee-Sony merger deal. The development could affect the valuation of Disney Star, which has signed a deal with Reliance Industries to merge their video streaming operations.

Currently, Reliance’s JioCinema holds the rights to broadcast IPL while the Disney Hotstar app owns the rights for International Cricket Council’s (ICC) matches in India until 2027.

Amid significant competition from Reliance, Disney+ Hotstar also stopped streaming HBO content in India last year.