Murdoch's Star TV threatened by Indian clampdown
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icernet-admin at listserv.cddc.vt.edu
Thu Sep 4 17:40:33 EDT 2003
It will require foreign satellite news channels to be majority-owned by a
dominant Indian partner, meaning Star will now have to shift editorial and
operational control to a 51% Indian shareholder. Star has four weeks to
comply with the new rules. Mr Murdoch is understood to have held talks with
potential investors including the group that publishes the Hindustani Times
and a Calcutta newspaper group about taking a 51% shareholding. But in an
open letter issued last month, Star accused its rivals of running a media
campaign "calculated to confuse and people and to misrepresent the facts".
Set up more than five years ago as an English-language channel, Star News
spent most of its time in the ratings doldrums. But following a relaunch in
April as a Hindi-language operation that produced all its news in house,
the channel's popularity surged. It now attracts around a 30% market share.
Star India generates about £167m a year or 70% of Star TV's total revenues.
Source:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/city/story/0,7497,1029519,00.html
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