ANALYSIS: All eyes on Star's dark horse CEO

While James Murdoch struggles to persuade British satellite broadcaster BskyB investors that he's the best choice as chief executive for the UK, in Asia, all eyes are on Michelle Guthrie, his replacement at the Star Group.

As with Murdoch, Guthrie's jump from the role of executive vice-president, regional distribution and business development, to chief executive officer of Star Group has raised eyebrows.

But, unlike Murdoch, Guthrie was more a dark horse in a field that boasted several high-profile names in the running - executive vice-president of television operations and president of Star Entertainment, Steve Askew, who at press time was promoted to chief operating officer; Peter Mukerjea, chief operating officer of the highly-successful Star India business; and Jamie Davis, who runs the China and Taiwan operations.

Indeed, Guthrie's broadcast experience - largely on the legal side of broadcasting - provided few clues that she would be the front runner for the top job.

A long-serving executive of Murdoch's media empire, Guthrie has been with News Corp since 1994 and was previously director of legal and business affairs at Foxtel, responsible for all legal and business development functions, and corporate counsel in London for News International and BSkyB. She moved to Star in 2000.

Star insiders, however, insist that Guthrie was the clear front-runner.

No less than Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp, provided a glowing hint that Guthrie was destined for a bigger role, when he described her as being "(one of) only a handful of people in Asia with over a decade of truly in-depth pay-television experience".

The handover comes at a particularly fortuitous time for Star's new chief.

For the first time last year, the broadcaster reversed losses and turned in a profit. The turnaround was banked on the huge success of localised versions of Who wants to be a millionaire? and aggressive expansion into India, as well as the China market.

"Star has had enormous success in India. The biggest issue (for Guthrie) will be to maintain its position in India and the positioning in Guangdong and beyond. They will need to maintain leadership and steer high-tech changes in the right direction," says Morgan Stanley head of Asia-Pacific research for media Andrew Swan.

But China remains a minefield. Guthrie will need to tread carefully in a market where the long-term potential is apparent, but business growth is slow and regulations abound.

Requiring more urgent attention are the programming and distribution issues in both Hong Kong and China to satisfy regional advertisers. Says Starcom Worldwide Hong Kong general manager Mabel Leung: "For the rest of Asia, because there were major changes last year - such as dividing Phoenix; that didn't help much - she will need to address these.

"In Hong Kong and China, distribution is still limited. The most important markets for regional advertisers are Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Singapore.

It will be important for her to work things out there." The other challenge is to step up Star's marketing capabilities to take on regional rivals as pay-TV opportunities emerge.

Explains Leung: "Star compared to other cabsat players is a bit like ATV and TVB (in Hong Kong). They have good programming, but no one knows about it. There's also too much change in the management too often. It doesn't help as it means a change in the sales team structure, programming, station structure, and these are hard for advertisers and internal staff to cope with. We hope that Michelle will work out a long-term mission."

STAR MILESTONES

INDIA

- Advertising and subscription revenue goes up by 15 per cent this year over 2002, driven by subscription numbers that grew 50 per cent

- Popstars 2 is launched in April, following the success of last year's show

- Star News shifts from English to Hindi, and 21 bureaus are set up in India

- Star Plus is No.1 channel for three years in a row, reports Nielsen-TAM

CHINA

- Xing Kong Chuan Mei wins landing rights to distribute in hotels/foreign compounds in January 2003

- Channel V's 9th music awards are watched by 210 million viewers

- Syndication helps expand viewership and establishes a new revenue stream - Over 100,000 paying subscribers sign up in the three months after the launch of wireless services.