India's Reliance invests in TV18 group

MUMBAI, Jan 3 (Reuters): India's Reliance Industries Ltd said it would invest in media group TV18's two main companies, marking a major foray into the media sector by the energy-focused conglomerate and giving a boost to its plans to launch 4G services.
Under the deal, Reliance will put up the money to allow the controlling shareholders of the TV18 group to subscribe to rights issues in the two firms, Network18 Media and Investments and TV18 Broadcast Ltd.
In return, India's biggest listed company will get preferential access to content from TV18 group, which would be distributed through the 4G broadband network it is setting up.
Network18 Media and Investments runs business news portal moneycontrol.com, while TV18 Broadcast operates television channels including CNBC-TV18 and CNN-IBN.
Reliance, controlled by Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, did not disclose the size of its investment.
But TV18 said in a separate release that interests associated with group founder Raghav Bahl would contribute 17 billion rupees ($320 million) to the rights issues.