Race to IBDF president heats up as Disney Star, Viacom18 become JioStar

New Delhi: Following K Madhawan's departure from Disney Star after its merger with Viacom18, all eyes are on who will become the next IBDF president.

The Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation is expected to send notices for the 22nd Annual General Meeting, which is already delayed, any time soon.

Industry veterans see JioStar, the media powerhouse created by the merger of Disney Star and Reliance's media businesses, as an obvious choice to lead the industry body.

“JioStar alone is half of the industry in terms of size. I would not be surprised if its representative takes over as IBDF president,” an industry veteran told BestMediaInfo.com.

JioStar is undeniably the largest Media and entertainment company in India with pro forma combined revenue of approximately Rs 26,000 crore for the fiscal year ended March 2024. 

While the company operates over 100 TV channels and produces 30,000+ hours of TV entertainment content annually, its OTT platforms – JioCinema and Hotstar – have an aggregate subscription base of over 50 million. 

In addition, JioStar holds a portfolio of sports rights across cricket, football and other sports.

JioStar is likely to nominate one of its three co-CEOs – Kevin Vaz, Kiran Mani and Sanjog Gupta – if it is offered the IBDF president role.

As Viacom18 CEO, Vaz joined the IBDF board last year as one of the co-opted members.

However, a media observer told BestMediaInfo.com that the nominee from JioStar taking over as IBDF president is possible only if the industry "justly" hands over the presidency to the media behemoth owing to its sheer size and scale.

“Other contenders could be Zee Entertainment and Sony Pictures Networks India. With Punit Goenka relinquishing as MD to focus on the CEO role after targets set by the ZEEL Board, he may refrain from taking any additional responsibility. SPNI CEO Gaurav Banerjee is another contender for IBDF president,” the media observer said.

“But if the industry decides to hold the elections, the floor is open for anyone. Then it will become the matter of influence and arithmetic,” the media observer added.

Race to IBDF presidency

There are twelve members of the IBDF Board out of which up to 25% could be from the news genre. The three members from the news genre are: India Today Group Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie, India TV Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma and Network18 MD & Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi.

Among the general entertainment players, the four top broadcasters have two seats each on the IBDF Board.

Zee as a Group has two positions on the IBDF Board of Directors, one each from Zee Entertainment and Zee Media.

Star, Sony and Viacom18 had two positions each.

Before the merger, Star India had three voting members from Star India Private Limited, Disney Broadcasting and NGC Networks. 

With the merger of Disney Star and Viacom18, JioStar is likely to be treated as one entity reducing the voting members, unless the industry body changes its charter.