{"id":235664,"date":"2015-04-02T14:27:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T08:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/?p=235664"},"modified":"2015-04-02T14:27:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T08:57:24","slug":"breaking-news-reliance-is-working-on-taking-control-of-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/breaking-news-reliance-is-working-on-taking-control-of-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking News: Ambanis dream of total media control"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ambanis\"
Photo: AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nIn the early 20th century, a board game, Monopoly, was designed to highlight the evils of land ownership and feudalism. Later, the Parker Brothers transformed it into one that almost revered free markets, capitalism and entrepreneurship. Players moved around the board, bought and sold properties, constructed houses and hotels, collected rents on their land and built an asset monopoly. The winner also strove to drive his opponents into bankruptcy.
\nThe two Ambani brothers, elder Mukesh and Anil, have a similar strategy in their minds. While they aim to build the largest media conglomerates in the country, they desire to spread their wings to the US, Europe, South- and East Asia, Africa and West Asia. If the two estranged siblings join hands \u2014 as they have on some occasions in the recent past \u2014 they may emerge as the next News Corp, CBS Corporation, Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG, Walt Disney, Vivendi or Sony.
\nIf their plans succeed, their media empires will span across genres such as print, broadcasting, radio and digital. They will own the distribution chains such as cable, direct-to-home (DTH), optic fibre (terrestrial and undersea), telecom towers and multiplexes. They will be present in various platforms, including
\ndigital and telecom (2G, 3G and broadband). Their content will include news, entertainment, e-commerce, security, financial services, education, health care and governance.
\nLike the feared Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Corp, the Ambani brothers may become one of the world\u2019s largest creators, acquirers and disseminators of content. To put it in perspective, Murdoch owns over 150 print publications, including Wall Street Journal<\/em> and The Times<\/em> (UK), cable and satellite channels and publishing houses. He controls distribution such as DTH\u00a0and is present on digital platforms. He produces movies and TV serials and has music rights and telecast rights to major sporting events such as the National Football League (US). He is present on all the continents.
\n
\"Net
Net cast wide <\/b>Mukesh Ambani took over the Network18 and ETV groups to own a large number of news and entertainment channels in several languages, Photo: Tehelka Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nMasters of content<\/strong>
\nAfter the takeover of the Network18 and ETV groups, Mukesh\u2019s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has access to broadcasting content that is generated daily by a bouquet of channels in several languages, including English, Hindi, Telugu, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati. It is a mix of news (mainstream and business) and entertainment (movies, music, soaps and sports). In 2011, it acquired Extramarks Education, which is focussed on school education and digital learning.
\nTime and again, RIL has publicly said that its objective is to be present in \u201ckey domains such as education, health care, security, financial services, government-citizen interfaces and entertainment\u201d. The idea is to allow consumers access \u201cinnovative and empowering digital content\u201d, which can ring in a new digital age in the country. Mukesh desires to contribute to, and enhance and expand, the \u2018Digital India\u2019 dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
\nYounger brother Anil, too, has taken strides to get hold of content. Initially, he purchased minority, but sizeable, stakes in news channels such as TV Today and Bloomberg TV. Later, he inked deals with international news content generators such as the BBC\u00a0and Radio Netherlands. His RWorld provides regular and updated international news through the day. However, in the past few years, Anil has focussed on music, movies, sports and other entertainment content.
\nAn agreement with Universal Music enables Anil to allow his consumers to select from 3 lakh tracks. He signed agreements with leading production houses, which were owned by celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey and Tom Hanks. In 2008, he formed a $1.5 billion joint venture with Spielberg\u2019s Dreamworks to produce 30-35 movies over the next five years. The idea did take off but only a handful of films were produced.
\nOther tie-ups with global giants such as Warner Home Video and Paramount will supplement Anil\u2019s movie and music libraries. Under the strategic alliance with Warner, he can market and distribute VCDs, CDs and Blu-ray products in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. As a senior manager in the group says, \u201cThe exclusive licence… will be advantageous not just for both parties but the movie lovers as well.\u201d Anil is also involved in a movie-restoration project.
\nAlthough some of Anil\u2019s moves haven\u2019t been successful so far, he is still gung-ho about indirect content in the form of gaming (zapak.com; a tie-up with Jump Games and Indiagames), social networks (allow consumers to use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), Internet on TV, Microsoft Windows and cloud computing. He hopes to offer these services on the DTH, digital and mobile platforms in the
\nnear future.
\n
\"Master
Master of convergence<\/b> Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Photo: Tehelka Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nDistributors par excellence<\/strong>
\nAnil has a head start over his elder brother in TV distribution. He is one of the largest DTH\u00a0players and, recently, he merged Digicable \u2014 one of the top four cable MSOs (Multi-System Operators) \u2014 with former Reliance Digicom. All the TV distribution services of the group \u2014 DTH, cable and Internet Protocol TV \u2014 will be merged into the new entity. A couple of years ago, there was news that Anil might sell the DTH\u00a0business to the Chennai-based Sun Group but the deal did not fructify. The younger brother owns hundreds of screens (movie theatres), although he sold the multiplex business and also runs FM\u00a0radio stations in almost 50 cities across the country; in 2008, he launched one in Singapore.
\nNot to be left behind, Mukesh has recently applied for a pan-India cable MSO\u00a0licence. Experts contend that almost 150 applicants, including Mukesh\u2019s Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJI), may be granted permission for digital cable distribution. There were rumours that RJI\u00a0wishes to buy a strategic 26 percent stake in one of the four or five largest MSOs; it has an over 1 percent holding in Sameer Manchanda\u2019s Den Networks, the largest cable distribution company in the country.
\n\"ambani_media\"<\/a>
\nDigitally Mobile<\/strong>
\nFor the two brothers, the digital-mobile convergence will offer the biggest, and most lucrative, media play. Mukesh has a pan-India licence to offer 4G (broadband) services. He plans to invest a whopping
\nRs 70,000 crore to offer 4G services to consumers in 5,000 cities and towns, which comprise 90 percent of urban India and 2.15 lakh villages. In a sense, it will be the privatised form of Modi\u2019s \u2018Digital India\u2019. With 4G and cable, RJI\u00a0can distribute content through wireless, wireline and cable.
\nOne of the grandest global plans that Mukesh has invested in is the Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG), an 8,000-km submarine cable system that will connect Malaysia and Singapore to West Asia, with connections to India (Mumbai and Chennai) and Sri Lanka. As an RIL press release said, \u201cThe construction of BBG is planned not only to provide connectivity between South East Asia and the Middle East, but also to Europe, Africa and to the Far East Asia through inter-connections with other existing and newly-built cable systems landing in India, the Middle East and the Far East Asia (sic).\u201d<\/em>
\nIf his 4G and broadband strategy has to take off, infrastructure in the form of wireline (optic fibre, undersea and terrestrial cable) and wireless (telecom towers) is crucial. So, apart from BBG, RJI\u00a0has signed an agreement with another telecom player, Bharti Airtel. Under the \u2018indefeasible right to use\u2019 contract, Bharti will provide RJI\u00a0data capacity on its i2i submarine cable, which is owned by the former and connects India to Singapore with landing points at Chennai and Tuas.
\nDomestically, Mukesh has roped in his younger brother to use the latter\u2019s optic fibre network. In April 2013, the former agreed to pay Rs 1,200 crore to utilise Anil\u2019s 1.2 lakh-km inter-city optic fibre network to help roll out its 4G services. A year later, RJI\u00a0inked a similar deal to use 5 lakh km of intra-city fibre network. For\u00a0the wireless services, Mukesh agreed to pay Rs 12,000 crore to his younger brother to use the latter\u2019s ground- and rooftop-based telecom towers. Similar agreements were signed with other domestic players owning a large number of telecom towers.
\nAs mentioned earlier, Anil owns a huge network of optic fibre and telecom towers. After his successful entry into 2G and 3G mobile services, he has his eyes set on 4G and broadband, just like his elder brother. In addition, he owns undersea cable links in the form of Flag and has signed a deal to build a terrestrial cable connection to China to connect India to East Asia. Another of his innovative projects is Metro Ethernet, which allows digital films to be shown in cinema theatres.
\n
\"Ruling
Ruling the airwaves<\/b>
Anil Ambani owns a huge network of
telecom towers<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nKings of convergence<\/strong>
\nAccording to recent reports, Mukesh has initiated moves to buy the Sun Group, whose tentacles extend from print, broadcasting, digital and radio to cable and DTH\u00a0distribution. Although both RIL and Sun have vehemently denied it \u2014 an RIL manager informally told Tehelka that there were no talks with Sun \u2014 the duo may strike a strategic alliance. It could either be an equity one, where RIL buys a minority stake, or a content- and distributing-sharing one.
\nA recent article in www.newslaundry.com claimed that RIL might have clicked a deal with the NDTV Group, another major broadcaster, which is similar to the initial one with the Network18 Group before a formal takeover of the latter. A fully-owned subsidiary of RIL extended a Rs 403.85 crore loan to Shinano Retail, which is part of RIL Group, and the money was passed on to Vishvapradhan Commercial. The address of Shinano Retail and Vishvapradhan Commercial was the same when the deal happened.
\nThe same year, Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Private Ltd \u2014 the main promoter of the NDTV Group \u2014 received exactly the same amount, Rs 403.85 crore, as an unsecured loan. Although the firm\u2019s balance sheet did not mention the source, the Income Tax Department claimed that the money came from Vishvapradhan Commercial. This was exactly the route that RIL adopted in the case of Network18. Later, in this case, the loan was converted into equity and formal ownership.
\nWith ownership over a range of content, dissemination platforms such as cable TV, digital and telecom and the requisite infrastructure, the two Ambani brothers wish to achieve the kind of convergence that doesn\u2019t exist anywhere in the world. As most of the developed nations have curbs on cross-media ownership, even the largest players cannot hope to have such an exhaustive and gigantic presence. However, Mukesh and Anil realise that they have to move fast in the near future.
\nOver the past few years, critics and regulators in India have clamoured for restrictions on cross-media ownership to stop the inevitable emergence of media monopolies and oligopolies. Some of them contend that this has already happened. Recently, the telecom regulator presented its recommendations on the issue to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Although the government rejected them, the ongoing pressure may lead to changes in cross-media policies.
\nAt present, there are several players who have similar media conglomerates like Mukesh and Anil or possess the resources to do so. But all of them, including the Ambanis, realise that they need to put their media empires in place before the cross-media curbs kick in. In such a scenario, the government will find it difficult to impose retrospective restrictions, and opt for prospective ones. The ones who manage to build monopolies quickly will be the clear winners in this media board game.
\neditor@tehelka.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given their convergence vision, the two Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, could emerge as global media players \u2014 and among the largest in India. By Alam Srinivas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":235669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[9303,9215,3538,3130,9304,3132,501,9305,9306,6374],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}