Asianet is an Indian Malayalam language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India.

[2][3] In late 2006, Menon partially pulled out of Asianet Communications, turning over control to Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Jupiter Entertainment Ventures).

[4] Star India eventually bought a 51% stake in Asianet Communications and formed a joint venture with JEV in November 2008.

In July 2023, The Walt Disney Company began exploring strategic options, including a sale or formation of a joint venture, for their businesses in India.

[8] Between September and October 2023, the company held preliminary talks with Reliance Industries, billionaire Gautam Adani and Kalanithi Maran, owner of the Sun Group, for a potential sale of its streaming and linear television assets.

For purposes of the merger, a subsidiary of Viacom18 was created to absorb Disney Star through a stock swap,[12] pending ratification and regulatory approval.

[13][14][15][16] In February 2024, Disney and Reliance reached a deal to merge their streaming and television assets, with the joint venture valued at $8.5 billion including synergies.

As part of the deal, Viacom18 would be merged into Disney Star with Disney holding a 36.84% stake in the combined entity, which would bring together assets such as linear television entertainment channels StarPlus, Colors TV and the Star Gold Network, sports channels Star Sports and Sports18 and the streaming services JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar with Nita Ambani serving as the chairperson of the joint venture, with Uday Shankar serving as vice chairperson with the deal giving 16.34% to Reliance and 46.82% to Viacom18, with the deal being expected to close sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 pending regulatory approval.

[22] Asianet Plus is the second Malayalam language general entertainment pay television channel is operated by JioStar, a subsidiary of Disney India.