Nov 14 (Reuters) - Reliance Industries and

Walt Disney ( DIS ) on Thursday completed the $8.5 billion

merger of their Indian media assets, which have been split into

three divisions, with each unit having its own CEO.

The companies said the newly formed divisions are

entertainment, which houses Reliance's Colours TV channels and

Disney's ( DIS ) Star; digital, home to online streaming platforms

JioCinema and Hotstar, and sports.

Former Google executive Kiran Mani, who leads

JioCinema, will take charge of the digital organisation.

Reuters reported last month that Disney Hotstar's CEO Sajith

Sivanandan resigned from the role as business integration

gathered pace for the merger.

The entertainment division will be led by Kevin Vaz, who is

currently the top boss at Reliance's Viacom 18 Media.

Sanjog Gupta, who heads sports at Disney's ( DIS ) Indian media

operations, will take charge of the merged company's sports

division.

The completion of the merger comes after the companies won

key approval from India's antitrust regulator in August after

assuaging regulatory worries about their grip on broadcasting

rights for cricket, India's favourite sport.

The merger will create India's biggest entertainment player,

with 120 TV channels and two streaming services, and will

compete with Sony ( SONY ), Netflix ( NFLX ) and Amazon ( AMZN )

.