FOCUS: INDIA - Murdoch revisits India with new plans

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.

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