In the wake of the $8.5 billion merger agreement with Disney’s India unit, Reliance-controlled Viacom18 has undergone a significant top-level restructuring.
As part of the reshuffle, Kiran Mani, who was appointed as the chief executive of digital business of JioCinema, will now be leading the digital and sports segments, while Kevin Vaz, who joined as the CEO of broadcast entertainment, will lead the entire content business, Mint reported.
Mani’s responsibilities will include digital product, subscriber management, advertisements, monetisation and influencer marketing. Additionally, sales of the linear sports channel will also be headed by Mani.
A consequence of the corporate leadership restructuring is that Viacom18 Sports CEO Anil Jairaj, who used to report to the board, will now be reporting in to Mani.
As for Vaz, he will be responsible for content clusters for both linear TV and digital, including general entertainment, children’s content and live events. Besides, he will also lead the movie studio business under Viacom18 Studios.
Mani joined Viacom18 last year after a 13-year stint with Google. Vaz joined Viacom18 last July after moving out of Disney Star in April.
Per the agreement between Reliance and The Walt Disney Company, Viacom18 will be merged into Star India through a court-approved scheme of arrangement. In addition, RIL has agreed to invest at closing Rs 11,500 crore into the JV for its growth strategy. The transaction values the JV at Rs 70,352 crore. Post completion of the above steps, the JV will be controlled by RIL and owned 16.34 per cent by RIL, 46.82 per cent by Viacom18 and 36.84 per cent by Disney.
It bears noting here that Bodhi Tree Systems, a platform formed between Lupa Systems founder and CEO James Murdoch and former Disney India head honcho Uday Shankar, which was founded in 2021, controls a 15.97% stake in Viacom18. Shankar has also been named vice-chairman of the new JV.
Disney may also contribute certain additional media assets to the JV, subject to regulatory and third-party approvals.
