Tata-Murdoch satellite deal to spur Indian pay-TV

[icernet-admin at listserv.cddc.vt.edu]

Tata Sons, the country's largest conglomerate, and the Star Group of Rupert
Murdoch's News Corp Ltd have agreed a satellite broadcasting joint venture
that could signal a fresh spurt of growth in India's pay TV industry. Last
week's deal is a bid to replicate the success of News Corp's
35-percent-owned subsidiary British Sky Broadcasting, which beams hundreds
of channels into small dishes on the homes of more than seven million
subscribers in Britain and Ireland. Tata, with interests ranging from tea to
textiles, will hold an 80 percent stake in the satellite service, its first
foray into broadcasting. The service will provide a bouquet of TV channels,
interactive features and other premium services, but Tata and Star are
saying little else about their plans, other than that they aim to build
India's largest digital television system. Star has the biggest share of
viewers and revenue in the country's 48-million-strong cable TV market, the
world's third largest. It is a fierce rival of the Essel Group, which owns a
majority stake in the country's largest listed media firm, Zee Telefilms
Ltd. Zee TV is the third most widely viewed channel, after Star Plus and
Sony Entertainment Television, but Star and Sony are not among the 48
channels offered by Dish TV. The issue of broadcasters refusing to provide
their channels to satellite systems run by rivals has proven a hurdle to the
industry's take-off. The Indian government opened the DTH market to private
firms in 2000, with a 49 percent cap on foreign direct investment, after
cable took off in a big way in 1991. Several players initially expressed
interest, but high infrastructure costs, the inability of broadcasters to
agree on content sharing and regulatory yo-yoing hamstrung the industry.

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp;:40164706:dd884afb1b2c9a7?typ
e=topNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4213285