Deal with Uday Shankar, James Murdoch a big push forward for Viacom18: Prabhudas Lilladher

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is doubling down on the media business with a strong push to both broadcasting as well as digital media by inducting marquee investors and launching big-ticket investments.  According to industry sources, the company is planning to raise funds upwards of Rs 12,000 crore from financial investors, to beef up the media business. Reliance will also invest its own capital into the domain.

Reliance has roped in Uday Shankar, former Star & Disney India chairman, and James Murdoch, as strategic partners in the growing media business, according to the sources.

To decode what this would mean for Viacom18, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Amnish Aggarwal, Head-Research, Prabhudas Lilladher.

First up, Aggarwal said that there is a lot of value in TV18 right now. He believes the deal with Uday and Shankar and James Murdoch will be a big push forward for Viacom18.

"Definitely at the current price, TV18 stock holds a lot of value," he said.

"It all depends on how the deal with Uday Shankar and James Murdoch goes. But definitely it will be a big push forward," he added.

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According to him, it makes sense for Viacom18 to enter the sports business.

"Given the fact that, they have to operate in a very different manner, it actually makes sense to enter into the sports business in India, because sports involves big money, and you can say a lot of eyeballs and viewership is involved. Sports is a very lucrative and large segment in the longer-term," he said.

Aggarwal is of the opinion that viewership may move significantly to over-the-top (OTT) platforms in the coming years. Additionally, he believes that Jio’s network will play an important role in media consumption in the country.

"The industry is changing a lot. I don't rule out that five years down the line, the number of viewership will move significantly towards the OTT platforms. As far as Reliance is concerned, media business is a very small part, whether you look at marketcap or in terms of the overall quantum of money involved at this point of time. But if you integrate the business, then in the longer term, it is going to be OTT driven, where Reliance by virtue of its Jio fibre and the huge Jio network will be playing a key role," he said.