Paramount sells India TV stake to Reliance for US$517 million

PARAMOUNT Global agreed to sell its 13 per cent stake in its Indian TV business to its partner, Reliance Industries, for US$517 million.

The deal comes after Reliance and Walt Disney agreed to merge their TV properties in the country last month, in a deal that valued the combined business at US$8.5 billion.

Reliance and Paramount were partners in Viacom 18 Media Private, which owns a number of TV channels in the region. Paramount will continue to license its programming to Viacom 18, according to a filing on Wednesday (Feb 13) by the US company.

Paramount, the parent of CBS, Nickelodeon and other networks, has been looking to reduce its debt by selling non-core assets such as its Simon & Schuster book publishing arm. Bloomberg News reported earlier on the company’s talks to sell its Indian TV stake. BLOOMBERG