2024-10-08 07:36:01
New Delhi: Tata Group is the largest industrial house in the country. It is rare to see any of his businesses making losses. But the group company Tata Play is running in loss. It is the largest direct-to-home company in the country. If sources are to be believed, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel is in talks with Tata Group to buy this company. Its objective behind this is to strengthen its presence in the digital TV segment. If this deal goes through, it will mark Tata’s departure from sub-scale content and entertainment operations. This will be the second deal between Tata Group and Airtel. Earlier in 2017, Bharti had purchased Tata’s consumer mobility business. Consumers in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities are now upgrading to over-the-top (OTT) packs on home broadband instead of DTH and turning to cheaper online options. Similarly, consumers in rural areas are increasingly opting for Doordarshan’s free dish. Sources said that the talks between Airtel and Tata that have been going on for several weeks have now gained momentum and a formal announcement is expected soon. Tata Sons did not comment on this.
Tata Play performance
An official associated with this matter said that Tata Group had bet on the growth of Tata Play. But the situation has changed due to change in market dynamics. The Group clearly believes that it must have a strong and widespread presence in any market. It seems that the performance of Tata Play did not live up to expectations. Tata Play fits well into Airtel’s strategic plans and its consumer offering portfolio. Airtel did not respond to the mail sent in this regard.
Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group, currently holds 70% of Tata Play. In April, it had bought 10% stake in Singapore investment firm Temasek Holding Pte for Rs 835 crore. This brought the company’s valuation to $1 billion. Before the pandemic, the company’s valuation was $3 billion.
Walt Disney owns 30% of the company. Walt Disney is looking to exit this business. Disney inherited Sky’s legacy stake in Tata Play following its 2019 mega-merger with Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox.
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whose share is how much?
Tata Sky has 32.7% market share with 20.77 million subscribers. Bharti Telemedia is in second place with 27.8% market share. Dish TV, which is struggling with cash crunch, is at third place with 20.8% market share and Sun TV Direct is at fourth place with 18.7% share. Tata Play Broadband, which provides services under the Tata Play Fiber brand, has 480,000 customers. Airtel DTH is mainly concentrated in three major regions South, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Experts say that if this deal happens, it will help Airtel to counter the aggressive offers of Jio.