Supreme Court rejects JioStar plea to halt CCI probe into abuse of dominance in Kerala TV market
NEW DELHI: In a setback for Reliance Industries Ltd-owned streaming platform JioStar, the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to stay its investigation into allegations of abuse of dominance and discriminatory pricing in Kerala’s television distribution market.
A bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Sandeep Mehta said the matter was at preliminary stage and the regulator should be allowed to proceed.
While rejecting the defense, the court said, “I’m sorry, it was rejected. Let the regulator investigate. This is only at a preliminary stage. This is just an investigation.”
JioStar had challenged the Kerala High Court’s December 3, 2025 order, which refused to stay the CCI probe and directed the regulator to complete the probe within eight weeks.
The case stems from a complaint filed by Asianet Digital Network, one of the leading cable and television distributors in Kerala. Asianet claimed that JioStar has a dominant position in the state due to its control over popular Malayalam entertainment channels and exclusive broadcasting rights of major sporting events such as IPL and international cricket.
According to Asianet, JioStar abused this dominance by denying similar terms to other distributors while offering preferential and discriminatory discounts to rival Kerala Communicators Cable Ltd (KCCL). According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) rules, broadcasters can offer discounts of up to 35% and have to follow a non-discriminatory pricing regime.
Asianet alleged that JioStar effectively provided discounts of over 50% to KCCL through separate marketing or promotional agreements, which it described as bogus arrangements.
Asianet said these deals enabled KCCL to acquire channels at much lower effective prices, offer cheaper packages, attract subscribers and local cable operators and gain market share, while Asianet had to pay higher rates for the same content.
In February 2022, CCI formed a prima facie view that the allegations warranted investigation and directed its director general to conduct a detailed investigation, stating that it did not amount to any finding of guilt.
JioStar had challenged the CCI order on judicial grounds, arguing that pricing and contractual disputes in broadcasting fell under the ambit of the Trai Act and the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, and accused Asianet of forum shopping. The CCI had opposed this, saying that the Competition Act operates in tandem with sectoral regulations and that its power to examine abuse of market power is not removed simply because the sector is subject to regulation.
In May 2025, a single judge in the Kerala High Court upheld the CCI’s decision; this opinion was later approved by a division panel on December 3, 2025. This prompted JioStar to approach the Supreme Court; it too refused to intervene any further and allowed the CCI investigation to continue within the eight-week time frame fixed by the Kerala High Court.
JioStar was launched in November 2024 following the merger of Reliance’s media business with The Walt Disney Company’s India operations in an $8.5 billion deal, merging Viacom18 and JioCinema with Star India and Disney+ Hotstar. Reliance holds a controlling stake of about 63%, while Disney holds a controlling stake of about 36.84%.
According to JustWatch data for April-June 2025, JioStar’s platform JioHotstar leads India’s subscription video-on-demand market with a share of around 25%, followed by Amazon Prime Video (23%), Netflix (19%), Apple TV+ (14%), ZEE5 (10%) and Sony LIV (5%).
