BENGALURU - Walt Disney Co and Reliance Industries won approval on Wednesday for an $8.5 billion merger of their Indian media assets after assuaging regulatory worries about their grip on broadcasting rights for cricket, India's favourite sport.

India's Competition Commission (CCI) said the deal had been approved subject to some modifications.

The antitrust watchdog had expressed concern that a merged entity would control most cricket rights for TV and streaming in India, and could hurt advertisers.

The merger will create India's biggest entertainment player to compete with Sony, Netflix and Amazon with 120 TV channels and two streaming services.

Reliance and Disney have spent roughly $9.5 billion in recent years for TV and streaming rights for the world's richest cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League, the International Cricket Council's matches such as the one-day and T20 World Cups, and matches organised by the Indian cricket board.

To get the merger over the line, the two companies have offered concessions to the CCI, including a commitment to not raise advertising rates unreasonably for streamed cricket matches, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

They also pledged not to bundle and sell advertising slots for different cricket tournaments, the source added.

The CCI said in a statement it "approves the proposed combination", without giving any more details.

For an interactive version of this graphic:

Both companies have offered free viewing of matches over the years to attract users to their streaming platforms in the hope they will then buy subscriptions.

Media agency GroupM estimates that companies spent nearly $2 billion in India in 2023 on sports industry related sponsorship, endorsement and media, with cricket accounting for 87% of the spend.

Disney and Reliance's merged entity will also own Indian broadcast rights for the Wimbledon tennis championship, MotoGP and the English Premier League, among other sporting events.

The merged company will be majority owned by Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani's Reliance. The CCI had privately asked Reliance and Disney around 100 questions related to the merger.

K.K. Sharma, a former head of mergers at the CCI, had earlier said the deal, if approved, would create "a big fish in the broadcasting market" which will practically be a "monopoly on cricket advertisement revenues".

  - Reuters