NATIONAL : The merger between Reliance Industries (RIL) and The Walt Disney Company’s India operations is expected to conclude early next week, with the new entity likely to be named Jio Star. 

Sources confirmed that the merger will be finalised by Tuesday, and the newly formed company will begin operations on Wednesday.

Sources further told BestMediaInfo.com that on Sunday, November 10, emails of Star India employees migrated to a new name, jiostar.com, hinting that the new entity’s name will be Jio Star.

The merger’s completion will be officially announced following a board meeting chaired by Nita Ambani on Wednesday. There have been several leadership changes during the ongoing merger process between the two companies. 

Kevin Vaz and Kiran Mani, the current CEOs of Viacom18’s broadcast and digital clusters, will become co-CEOs of the merged entity. Vaz, previously with Disney Star, will lead the broadcast and entertainment divisions, while Mani, a former Google executive, will oversee digital and sports.

On Friday, November 8, Ferzad Palia, Business Head of JioCinema, stepped down. Other recent departures include Mihir Rale, Disney Star’s legal head, in late October, and K Madhavan, who will step down as Country Manager and President of Disney Star. Sajith Sivanandan, head of Disney+ Hotstar, will also be leaving.

Meanwhile, JioCinema has appointed Ishan Chatterjee, formerly of YouTube, as Chief Business Officer, and Sushant Sreeram as Chief Marketing Officer.

Post-merger, the conglomerate plans to leverage Disney+ Hotstar as its flagship streaming service, which will once again feature the Indian Premier League (IPL), big-ticket games, domestic cricket, and ICC events. (Best Media Info)