Airtel, Tata DTH merger talks fail, Airtel informs BSE: ‘After not being able to find a …’

Bharti Airtel and the Tata Group have mutually terminated discussions to mix their direct-to-home (DTH) companies, Airtel Digital TV and Tata Play, after failing to attain a passable settlement, Airtel introduced in a inventory change submitting late Saturday. “After not being able to find a satisfactory resolution, the parties have mutually decided to terminate the discussions,” Airtel said.
The talks, first confirmed by Airtel in February following a report by The Economic Times, aimed to merge Tata Play, India’s largest DTH supplier, with Bharti Telemedia, a unit of Sunil Mittal’s telecom big. The proposed deal would have united two loss-making DTH operations amid a client shift towards digital streaming platforms.
Sources beforehand indicated that the merger discussions concerned a share swap, with Airtel doubtlessly holding a 52-55% stake within the mixed entity, whereas Tata Play shareholders, together with The Walt Disney Co, would retain 45-48%. Both companies had been valued at roughly ₹6,000-7,000 crore every.
Tata Play, previously Tata Sky, is 70% owned by Tata Sons, which acquired a 10% stake from Temasek Holdings in April 2024 for ₹835 crore, valuing the corporate at round $1 billion. Disney holds a minority stake, acquired by way of its 2019 buy of twenty first Century Fox.
The failed merger would have been the second main consolidation in India’s DTH sector for the reason that 2016 Dish TV-Videocon d2h merger and coincided with the current formation of JioStar, India’s largest media firm, by way of the Reliance Industries and Disney merger of Star India and Viacom18.
The termination leaves each firms to navigate the aggressive DTH market independently as digital platforms proceed to reshape client viewing habits.