With Jio GigaFiber’s Launch Imminent, Three Cos Including Bharti Airtel Look To Buy 87 Per Cent Stake In Dish TV

Preparing to face an imminent arrival of Reliance Jio GigaFiber into the Digital TV and home broadband services, Bharti Airtel is in talks with Singtel and Warburg Pincus to buy 61 per cent stake in Zee’s Dish TV, reports Telecom Talk.

Following the buyout, the trio are supposed to make an offer of additional 26 per cent stake. After the deal happens, Bharti Airtel’s digital TV business will include Bharti Telemedia and Dish TV.

Meanwhile, Zee founder Subhash Chandra is looking to sell a substantial stake in Zee entertainment. The digital TV giant’s debt burden, as of 31 March 2018 stood at Rs 3,154 crore.

This is expected to be taken up by the combine of Bharti Airtel, Warburg Pincus and Singtel. The total payout is expected to bring around $1.15 billion.

Should the merger materialise, the combined entity will be the biggest TV distribution company in the world with 3.8 crore subscribers and 61 per cent share of India’s DTH market.

According to the analysts, Bharti Airtel’s DTH wing is clustered primarily in urban areas. With the arrival of Reliance Jio GigaFiber, the company is expected to face severe competition across tier 1 and tier 2 cities.