Aasmaan pe udne wale, mitti me mil jayega
At one time it was the tiara of the Rupert Murdoch group, and today it is struggling to stay afloat. Satellite Television for Asian Region (or STAR for short) Indian operations has been a hot spot on the Murdoch family’s media business in Asia. When Rupert Murdoch bought the satellite business from Hong Kong real estate tycoon, Li Ka-Shing, the business model was in doldrums. Today, STAR is said to have more than 300 million viewers in 54 countries.
With his sharp business acumen and devil may care attitude, Murdoch set about building up his fledgling satellite television business. Such was the early dominance of the STAR channels that cable TV in our country was known as STAR TV. Slowly as the business matured, STAR pressed home the early mover advantage. One of the big bosses who built up the revenues for the group was Peter Mukerjea.
Peter led a team that comprised of Samir Nair, a young hotel management graduate from Chennai. Samir, who went on to IIM Ahmedabad, was the back office and programming genius. He knew what would click and what didn't with the Indian audiences, specially the housewives. Mukerjea looked after the sales part, which did well for years on end. When they clicked, they were like a house on fire.
Soon, business grew and STAR with annual sales of Rs 800 crores became the second biggest media company in the country, after the Times of India group which had annual sales totaling to Rs 3,000 crore. For all the facade of an Indian company, STAR India has an umbilical cord stretching all the way to Hong Kong. In fact 80% of STAR's turnover came from India. Murdoch knew that he needed his men to keep an eye on the Indian operations, which was the cash cow of the group.
Murdoch senior brought in his son James Murdoch to do the policing job from STAR's headquarters in Hong Kong. But James soon grew tired of a market he could little fathom, with soaps in which women cried their heart out, or a crazy game called cricket. He moved on in 2003, to head BSkyB in the UK and Michelle Guthrie took over as CEO of Star TV Hong Kong. The fast talking and sometimes paranoid lady knew that she needed to do a revamp the Indian operations if STAR India was to stay ahead in the media sweepstakes.
In March last year, STAR India was split into two separate divisions - STAR Group India and STAR Entertainment India. Peter Mukerjea, who was chief executive officer of STAR India, was named the chief executive of STAR Group India. At the same time, Michelle promoted her blue-eyed boy Nair, who was then the chief operating officer of STAR India, as the chief executive of STAR Entertainment India. For Mukerjea, the new job was demotion and a loop line posting. That was a mistake in hindsight, and the genesis of STAR India’s downfall. Samir is a brilliant programming man, but a disaster in sales. To Samir's bad luck Amitabh pulled out just as KBC 2 was taking off.
STAR Plus, which contributes to over 80% to the star kitty, is now in the sick bay. The channel, which mopped up Rs 795 crore last year, is not expected to make beyond Rs 600 crore this year. With viewers getting tired of Saas and Bahu like serials, ratings have gone into a tailspin. Even STAR One, which was launched two years back, is still in the red. Now with the Government of India setting new rules for sports telecast, its distribution deal with Nimbus is deep trouble.
KBC 3 on STAR Plus has drawn a mixed response. According to online rating agency AMAP, the show saw a rating of 5.35 percent on the opening day, and has since been on a decline to land up just 3.3 on the fourth day. STAR bosses say that they will wait for TAM ratings to come in before they react. The talk is that like Tata's buy out of Corus, STAR's huge payment to SRK seems to have gone over the top, and made the show unviable.
To top it all, the ascent of Zee with Pradeep Guha at the helm of affairs is beginning to show on the fortunes of STAR India. A hands-on boss, Guha is recreating the magic, that he had done during his days at the Times group. Revenues at Zee are on the rise, and even the flanking channels are making money. Guha is pushing the sales teams in Zee into an overdrive in a bid to overtake Star.
As things in Star India began to become messier, Michelle Guthrie was given the sack. She was replaced by Paul Aiello as chief executive officer of STAR, Hong Kong. Aiello, who had a fairly long stint with Morgan Stanley, joined STAR last year and was responsible for developing strategic and business directions.
Samir Nair who was seen as Guthrie's protégé, quit just a day before KBC 3 with new host, Shah Rukh Khan went on air. With an aggressive Zee hot on its tails, Peter Mukerjea too realised that he had no chance to move into Samir's slot and arrest sales decline at Star, and put in his papers. A firangi, John Askera will take over as the new COO of Star India.
Samir Nair is said to be speaking to Radhika and Prannoy Roy to take charge of the entertainment channel to be launched by NDTV in partnership with filmmaker Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. On the other hand, Mukerjea is said to be joining Mukesh Ambani who is planning to launch a slew of channels.
Media watchers say that with the departure of Mukerjea and Samir, morale at STAR is down and out. The new boss, Askera is said to be making a renewed attempt to halt the decline, and was holding a series of meetings to reassure that things were fine. But, will Star ever emerge out of Samir and Mukerjea's shadows?
The Economist has suggested that News Corporation may eventually merge STAR with BSkyB and DirecTV to form a global satellite TV company.
Will it all click? Watch this space.
With his sharp business acumen and devil may care attitude, Murdoch set about building up his fledgling satellite television business. Such was the early dominance of the STAR channels that cable TV in our country was known as STAR TV. Slowly as the business matured, STAR pressed home the early mover advantage. One of the big bosses who built up the revenues for the group was Peter Mukerjea.
Peter led a team that comprised of Samir Nair, a young hotel management graduate from Chennai. Samir, who went on to IIM Ahmedabad, was the back office and programming genius. He knew what would click and what didn't with the Indian audiences, specially the housewives. Mukerjea looked after the sales part, which did well for years on end. When they clicked, they were like a house on fire.
Soon, business grew and STAR with annual sales of Rs 800 crores became the second biggest media company in the country, after the Times of India group which had annual sales totaling to Rs 3,000 crore. For all the facade of an Indian company, STAR India has an umbilical cord stretching all the way to Hong Kong. In fact 80% of STAR's turnover came from India. Murdoch knew that he needed his men to keep an eye on the Indian operations, which was the cash cow of the group.
Murdoch senior brought in his son James Murdoch to do the policing job from STAR's headquarters in Hong Kong. But James soon grew tired of a market he could little fathom, with soaps in which women cried their heart out, or a crazy game called cricket. He moved on in 2003, to head BSkyB in the UK and Michelle Guthrie took over as CEO of Star TV Hong Kong. The fast talking and sometimes paranoid lady knew that she needed to do a revamp the Indian operations if STAR India was to stay ahead in the media sweepstakes.
In March last year, STAR India was split into two separate divisions - STAR Group India and STAR Entertainment India. Peter Mukerjea, who was chief executive officer of STAR India, was named the chief executive of STAR Group India. At the same time, Michelle promoted her blue-eyed boy Nair, who was then the chief operating officer of STAR India, as the chief executive of STAR Entertainment India. For Mukerjea, the new job was demotion and a loop line posting. That was a mistake in hindsight, and the genesis of STAR India’s downfall. Samir is a brilliant programming man, but a disaster in sales. To Samir's bad luck Amitabh pulled out just as KBC 2 was taking off.
STAR Plus, which contributes to over 80% to the star kitty, is now in the sick bay. The channel, which mopped up Rs 795 crore last year, is not expected to make beyond Rs 600 crore this year. With viewers getting tired of Saas and Bahu like serials, ratings have gone into a tailspin. Even STAR One, which was launched two years back, is still in the red. Now with the Government of India setting new rules for sports telecast, its distribution deal with Nimbus is deep trouble.
KBC 3 on STAR Plus has drawn a mixed response. According to online rating agency AMAP, the show saw a rating of 5.35 percent on the opening day, and has since been on a decline to land up just 3.3 on the fourth day. STAR bosses say that they will wait for TAM ratings to come in before they react. The talk is that like Tata's buy out of Corus, STAR's huge payment to SRK seems to have gone over the top, and made the show unviable.
To top it all, the ascent of Zee with Pradeep Guha at the helm of affairs is beginning to show on the fortunes of STAR India. A hands-on boss, Guha is recreating the magic, that he had done during his days at the Times group. Revenues at Zee are on the rise, and even the flanking channels are making money. Guha is pushing the sales teams in Zee into an overdrive in a bid to overtake Star.
As things in Star India began to become messier, Michelle Guthrie was given the sack. She was replaced by Paul Aiello as chief executive officer of STAR, Hong Kong. Aiello, who had a fairly long stint with Morgan Stanley, joined STAR last year and was responsible for developing strategic and business directions.
Samir Nair who was seen as Guthrie's protégé, quit just a day before KBC 3 with new host, Shah Rukh Khan went on air. With an aggressive Zee hot on its tails, Peter Mukerjea too realised that he had no chance to move into Samir's slot and arrest sales decline at Star, and put in his papers. A firangi, John Askera will take over as the new COO of Star India.
Samir Nair is said to be speaking to Radhika and Prannoy Roy to take charge of the entertainment channel to be launched by NDTV in partnership with filmmaker Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. On the other hand, Mukerjea is said to be joining Mukesh Ambani who is planning to launch a slew of channels.
Media watchers say that with the departure of Mukerjea and Samir, morale at STAR is down and out. The new boss, Askera is said to be making a renewed attempt to halt the decline, and was holding a series of meetings to reassure that things were fine. But, will Star ever emerge out of Samir and Mukerjea's shadows?
The Economist has suggested that News Corporation may eventually merge STAR with BSkyB and DirecTV to form a global satellite TV company.
Will it all click? Watch this space.
1 comment:
Infact, STAR has decided to come to AP with a Joint Venture with the Balaji Telefilms, known for its serials. While STAR has already taken over Vijay TV in Tamil, its now the turn of Telugu and is planning for a good launch.
However, there will not be News in the Star TV since there4 is 26 percent cap on the foreign equity wherever news is involved. So, our journalist friends who want a position in Star Telugu News may lose hpoe and eye on other channels.
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