Star sits back, Tata Sons to take it home

Star finally hit home with Tata Sons to launch its Direct to Home (DTH) operations today. It has also decided to take the backseat, with Tat...

Star finally hit home with Tata Sons to launch its Direct to Home (DTH) operations today. It has also decided to take the backseat, with Tata Sons announcing the formation of a joint venture where it will have a 80 per cent stake. The rest will be held by Star. The new company will be approaching the government for a licence to operate soon.

Star was in the midst of a controversy for floating Space TV for its DTH venture which the Government did not clear on two grounds: financial viability and apprehensions about the relationship between Space TV and Star. The new JV may or may not bear the name Space TV, sources said.

While Star may have lost the first mover’s advantage to Subash Chandra promoted ASC Enterprise which launched its DTH operations three months ago, a note from the Tata Group said the group was looking forward to building India’s largest digital television platform and offer a range of channels including exclusive channels with interactive features and services. Star is a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and is expected to duplicate its BSkyB success in UK on Indian soil.

The Tata statement said the joint venture is subject to requisite government approvals but did not specify the investment in the initiative and how many channels the platform would carry. It would take a few months for operations to begin as DTH guidelines are yet to be put in place, sources said.

The name of the new company, management team and investment plan, including the capital base will be worked out in due course, the Tata spokesperson said.

The Star and Tata joint venture is seen as a culmination of a long exercise started by Star’s former CEO James Murdoch, now CEO BSkyB. The present CEO Michelle Guthrie was in Mumbai last week, on a visit which sources said, was primarily undertaken to clinch the deal.