Bharti Airtel has ended merger talks with the Tata Group regarding the consolidation of their Direct-To-Home (DTH) businesses.
The discussions, which began in February 2025, have been terminated mutually due to the parties being unable to reach a “satisfactory resolution.”
Bharti Airtel Ends Merger Talks With the Tata Group
The proposed merger aimed to combine Airtel Digital TV and Tata Play, both of which are loss-making units.
“After not being able to find a satisfactory resolution, the parties have mutually decided to terminate the discussions,” Airtel stated.
The merger was planned to take place through a share swap, which would have increased Airtel’s non-mobile revenue share by leveraging business convergence.
According to an earlier ET report, Bharti Airtel was expected to hold a majority stake of over 50% in the merged entity.
Tata Play, originally known as Tata Sky, is India’s largest DTH player and began as a joint venture with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
The Walt Disney Company now owns the original News Corp stake, having acquired it through its 21st Century Fox acquisition six years ago.
A Successful Merger Would Have Been the Second Major DTH Consolidation in India
A successful merger would have been the second major DTH consolidation in India in about a decade, following the Dish TV-Videocon d2H merger in 2016.
The deal would also have occurred around the same time as the Reliance Industries-Walt Disney merger, which created JioStar, India’s largest media and entertainment company.
Airtel Digital TV is a part of Bharti Telemedia Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel.
The valuation of both DTH businesses—Tata Play and Airtel Digital TV—was reportedly in the range of Rs 6,000–7,000 crore, according to the ET report.
Tata Sons, which is the holding entity of the Tata Group, owns 70% of Tata Play.
In April 2024, Tata Sons bought out the 10% stake held by Temasek Holdings (a Singapore investment firm) for Rs 835 crore ($100 million).
That transaction valued Tata Play at $1 billion, which marked a significant decline from its $3 billion pre-pandemic valuation.
