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Disney (NYSE:DIS) and India’s Reliance Industries are looking at ways to win approval from the Indian Competition Commission, which may include selling some cricket broadcast rights or a two-year ad rate freeze.
Earlier in the week, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had sent a warning notice to the companies expressing concern that the $8.5B asset merger would have a monopoly on cricket broadcast rights.
In February, Disney announced a deal with Reliance Industries to merge Star India and Vaicom18, creating a behemoth that would directly compete with the likes of Sony, Netflix (NFLX), and Amazon (AMZN).
Reuters reported that several antitrust lawyers have mentioned that to keep the deal alive, the companies will now have to come up with structural changes to their arrangements, so-called behavioral remedies, or both, which can include selling some of their broadcast rights.
Lawyers quoted by Reuters also mentioned that another solution could be that the parties commit that they will cap advertisement rates for cricket matches for a few years, so they can assure the watchdog that advertisers’ interests can be protected.
Apart from selling cricket rights and ad rate freezes, other proposals from the merger-bound parties could include shutting down certain weaker channels in Hindi and regional markets, as the combined entity’s market share in many markets would easily cross the 40% threshold, The Economic Times reported.
Disney and Reliance are aiming to complete their merger by October of this year.
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