But the fate of Star India has changed in recent years amid a dwindling market condition that has forced Iger to shift focus to core businesses.
It also doesn’t help Hotstar that Ambani has poached several top Star India executives to lead Viacom18 and agreed to spend $3 billion to stream the IPL cricket tournament for five years.
(Disney is also spending about $3 billion on IPL, but on broadcasting the matches on TV.) Viacom18 counts Bodhi Tree, run by former Fox executives Uday Shankar and James Murdoch, among its significant backers.