Tata in advanced talks to buy back Temasek’s Tata Play stake: Report

Tata Group is reportedly in advanced talks with Singapore-based Temasek Holdings Pte for buying back its 20 per cent stake in Tata Play, its entertainment content distribution platform, at a valuation of more than $1 billion.

Tata Group and the Singaporean state investor are in the final stages of discussions around the interest of about 20 per cent in Tata Play Ltd, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. After buying the stake, Tata Group could potentially solidify its position on the platform, previously known as Tata Sky.

Incorporated in 2001, Tata Play, a joint venture between Tata Group and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, offers pay television services through set-top boxes and over-the-top video streaming via its app.

It expanded beyond traditional pay television and PVR services with Tata Play Binge, an OTT streaming service accessible via the Amazon Fire TV Stick, Tata Play Binge+ Smart Set Top box, Android TV and its mobile app, the Tata Sons site shows. It has a pan-India footprint of 23 million connections.

Temasek owns about 20 per cent of the content distribution platform. Temasek first invested in Tata Sky, as it was known at the time, in 2007, according to its website.

Discussions are ongoing and there’s no certainty that Temasek and Tata Play will proceed with a deal, the report further said.

Tata Play was recently given a go-ahead by the regulators to proceed with the IPO, which was one of the IPOs planned by the $128 billion Tata Group after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.’s $1.2 billion IPO in 2004. 

In 2022, Tata Play had reportedly filed confidentially with the Sebi and became the first company to go for filing IPO documents without making sensitive information public.