Walt Disney-owned Star India has sought damages of USD 940 million from Zee Entertainment Enterprises for its failure to honour the USD 1.5 billion International Cricket Council (ICC) TV rights deal, as per a regulatory filing by Zee.

In a regulatory filing, Zee refuted the claims made by Star, which quantified the damages in its Statement of Case before the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) Arbitral Tribunal on September 16.

While refuting the Star’s claims, Zee noted that the arbitration is in its initial stage and the LCIA Arbitral Tribunal is yet to determine if the company is liable in any manner, The Economic Times reported.

“The company will, on merits, strongly contest all unfounded claims by Star and reserves all its rights,” Zee said in its filing.

Star is in the process of merging with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)-owned Viacom18 to create India’s largest media and entertainment company worth USD 8.5 billion.

The proposed merged entity, which will be controlled by RIL, is likely to pursue the matter before LCIA once the merger becomes effective. The National Company Law Tribunal and the Competition Commission of India have already approved the merged deal.

Liabilities relating to the ICC TV deal was one of the key reasons for the drop in Star’s valuation to USD three billion. Despite being the bigger of the two entities, Star was valued lower than Viacom18, which had a valuation of USD four billion. RIL will infuse USD 1.5 billion in the merged entity.