Mr Rupert Murdoch, who ushered in the medium that helped changed
the face of India - satellite TV - recently returned after a four-year
break.
This time, he visited India's booming IT hub, Bangalore, to prepare for
his ecommerce venture, eVentures, a JV with Mr Pramod Mittal's Ispat
Group, as well as to launch Star's new India-specific channels.
According to News Corp, eVentures will invest in and develop Internet
and ecommere start-ups in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and India.
"We are going to travel with the IT wave which is ruling the world," Mr
Murdoch said.
"There is tremendous excitement over the possibilities made available by
technology."
Mr Murdoch plans to "pull together" various TV units into one company
and extend them into one arm.
Some months ago, Star TV and JV partner Zee TV parted company, leaving
Zee a free hand to do what it wants.
And what it wants is supremacy in the regional language satellite
market, as well as a dominant position in convergence media and in
ecommerce; in the region and beyond, in Africa, Europe and North
America, wherever a flourishing Indian audience is to be found.
In December 1999, trusted Murdoch lieutenant Rathikant Basu took the
helm at Broadcast Worldwide India (BWI).
BWI is News Corp's latest joint promotion in India, and will invest
about US$23 million to launch specialised channels in six Indian
languages in competition with Zee, as well as other channels operating
successfully in the Indian language market.
BWI will work closely with Star, and join the DTH platform when it
finally materialises here.
"There's more business for regional channels (local Indian language
channels) as compared to the national market," Mr Basu said. "Hindi
channels do reasonably well in the North, but there is a huge market
waiting to be tapped in West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and
Punjab."
From there, it is a short step to providing interactive TV and ecommerce
in local languages - in fact, electronics majors are already marketing
Internet-ready TV sets at competitive prices.
Currently, C&S homes, of which there are 30 million, receive nearly 100
channels, according to the National Readership Survey, 1999.
TV adspend made a quantum jump from US$46.5 million in 1990 to
US$558 million in 1999 and is all set to grow if local language
channels grow, too.
The C&S market, kicked off by Star TV in 1990, saw considerable churn in
the '90s.
The highs in the first part of the decade were followed by a major slump
in the mid-years, as numerous promoters jumped in to copy the leader and
failed to provide quality, content, and relevance to either audiences or
marketers.
Star established the platform concept, launched channels, and added
cable operators to its stakeholders. However, it realised that it could
not attract a mass audience and ad revenue with its niche, free-to-air
programming.
Stymied by interminable official waffling over the DTH issue, and
blocked from broadcasting in local languages by a clause in its JV with
Zee TV, Star finally called it a day with both DTH and Zee, last year,
freeing itself to consolidate and re-shape its strategy given the rise
of promising new tehnologies.
The new thrust is toward local languages, of which there are about 16
major ones, convergence and ecommerce.
"Huge things are to be done in the regional language (local language)
scene," said production house UTV chairman Ronnie Screwalla.
"Each of India's states is a mini-Germany and mini-France. The
broadcasters do not have the money yet, but give it five years, and the
money power will go up."
Currently, Mr Murdoch is close-mouthed about acquiring Indian software
outfits.
"I will be making investments, but I don't think I will be acquiring
companies," he said.
"We have already begun investing through venture capital with the
Mittals, and will be announcing similiar ventures directly through Star
TV."
During his trip to India, Mr Murdoch met with software wizards Infosys
chairman and CEO N.R. Narayana Murthy, as well as Wipro head Aziz
Premji.
