News Corp's Asian unit Star is expanding its presence in the fast-growing Indian TV market by forming a joint venture with regional broadcaster, Jupiter Entertainment.
The venture, called Star Jupiter, will include Jupiter's majority stakes in six south Indian regional channels, as well as 100% of Star's small Tamil channel, Vijay. The companies would not disclose financial details of the deal.
Advertising revenue for regional language broadcasters in India is forecast to grow at a 20% annual rate for the next five to seven years, according to Star CEO, Paul Aiello, quoted by the Financial Times. This compares to annual growth rate of between 12% and 14% for other broadcasters. Between 50% and 80% of television viewing in India's four southern regions is in local languages.
"The fastest growth in cable and satellite broadcasting is coming from southern India," says Star India CEO, Uday Shankar. "The partnership also offers an exciting opportunity to those advertisers who are looking at nationwide-reach vehicles and reinforce this with strong regional channels."
Launched in 1991, Star provides satellite TV to around 300m viewers in 53 Asian countries. The firm has been a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp since 1995.
StrategyEye's related companies: Asianet Communications, News Corporation, STAR Group
