Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media and entertainment joint venture between TV18 and Paramount Global based in Mumbai. It was founded in 2007 and owns various channels, as well as content production studios in India.

History

In January 2010, Viacom18 went international with the launch of Colors in United States. The channel is called Aapka Colors. In July 2010, it got into 50/50 distribution joint venture with Sun Network to form Sun 18. In December 2011, Viacom18 launched Nickelodeon Sonic, targeting young adults. In January 2014, TV18 acquired the non- Telugu language TV assets of ETV Network for ₹2,053

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

, with a permission to use ETV brand name. In March 2015, Viacom18 decided to rebrand all five non- Telugu language ETV regional general entertainment channels. ETV Marathi, ETV Gujarati, ETV Kannada,

ETV Bangla Colors Bangla, previously known as ETV Bangla, is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel broadcasting in Bengali language. It was launched in 2000 as ETV Bangla, owned by the Hyderabad-based ETV Network. It was later sold to TV18 ...

and ETV Odia were rebranded into Colors Marathi, Colors Gujarati, Colors Kannada, Colors Bangla and

Colors Odia Viacom18 Media Private Limited is an Indian media and entertainment joint venture between TV18 and Paramount Global based in Mumbai. It was founded in 2007 and owns various channels, as well as content production studios in India. History In ...

respectively. The company also owns

Viacom18 Studios Viacom18 Studios (Also known as Paramount 18 Studios), a subsidiary of Viacom18 (a Paramount Networks EMEAA and Network18 joint venture) based in Mumbai, is one of the first studio model based motion picture & content production business in Ind ...

. On 31 January 2018, TV18 announced its acquisition of Viacom's majority in the joint venture, taking operational control and leaving Viacom with minority interest. On 1 October 2019, Viacom18 launched Colors HD in Malaysia on Astro Malaysia; every serial will be served with

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

and English subtitles. More recently, the company had signed a deal with the National Basketball Association in order to deliver live NBA games to all of their own networks.

Merger attempts

Merger with Sony

In June 2020, Sony's Indian unit

Sony Pictures Networks India Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited, doing business as Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN or SPNI), is an Indian media conglomerate owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Culver Max Entertainment manages and operates 26 television channels, ...

was in talks with Viacom18 about a merger, with the talks getting advanced much later. If the merger was successful, Sony would be 74% shareholder in the merged company. However, in October 2020,

Reliance Industries Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is ...

, majority share holder in Viacom18, called off the merger.

Merger With Zee

In June 2021, reports stated Viacom18 and Zee Entertainment Enterprises were reportedly in talks about a merger. However, Zee denied any talks about a potential merger with Viacom18, later entering talks with

, which was also in talks about a merger with Viacom18 earlier.

Merger with Lupa India

In January 2022, there were reports that Lupa India, an investment company set up by Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, were in the final stages of picking up a 39% stake in Viacom18. thereby turning Paramount Global into a minority share holder with a 10% share in the company. Instead, Viacom18 and

ultimately partnered with Bodhi Tree Systems, a company owned by Lupa Systems, to form a giant streaming and TV company. Bodhi Tree plans to invest US$1.8 billion in Viacom18, with Reliance investing US$216 million and Paramount Global continuing to be a shareholder in Viacom18; JioCinema will be transferred to Viacom18. The deal was approved by CCI in September 2022.

Channels and platforms

On-air channels

Following are the distribution channels available from TV18:

Upcoming channels

Over The Top (OTT)

* Voot * Paramount+ (set to launch in 2023 in India) * JioCinema

References

External links

Official Site
{{ViacomCBS Television stations in Mumbai Mass media companies based in Mumbai Network18 Group Paramount International Networks Television production companies of India Mass media companies established in 2007 Indian companies established in 2007 Multinational joint-venture companies Indian subsidiaries of foreign companies 2007 establishments in Maharashtra