[icernet] Murdoch's Star Group to Provide 24-Hour News Channel in India

[Arul Selvan]

  As war in Iraq and continued tensions in Central Asia give people here 
more reasons than ever to watch television news, Rupert Murdoch's Star 
Group is about to start a 24-hour news channel in India.

Star Group, which is based in Hong Kong and is owned by Mr. Murdoch's 
News Corporation, is Asia's largest broadcaster, beaming 40 channels of 
programming in eight languages, via satellite and cable, to 300 million 
viewers in 53 countries. And the Indian market, where Star already 
provides entertainment programming, is second only to China in size of 
potential audience  with many fewer government restrictions on program 
content.

The Indian news channel, to be called Star News, is set to go on the air 
in early April. It will be aimed at the 41 million households in India 
with cable television. An additional 41 million or so Indian households 
have television sets that receive local over-the-air programming 
broadcast by government stations. The average age of the current Indian 
news watcher is 40 years, 60 percent of India is under 30.

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/24/business/worldbusiness/24STAR.html?ex=1049086800&en=378c8d9832966179&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE