EX-STAR Chief to Lead Chernin’s Asian Venture

HONG KONG: Former News Corporation president and COO Peter Chernin has set up a new business focused on the Asia-Pacific media markets, to be led by ex-STAR Group chief Paul Aiello as CEO.

CA Media, based in Hong Kong, will strategically build, manage, and operate media, entertainment, and technology businesses throughout Asia, initially focused on China, India and Indonesia. Chernin will be serve as chairman. CEO Aiello is a founding shareholder. Other investors include Allen & Company LLC, Brookside Capital (an affiliate of Bain Capital), Gordon Crawford and Kimberly Querrey. The venture will be involved in film and TV content creation, television networks, sports, education, advertising and digital media.

“We see tremendous opportunity across Asia, but particularly in India, China, and Indonesia,” said Chernin. “These markets provide the ideal blend of economic, demographic, and industrial dynamism required to build a pan-Asian media organization of significant scale. In Asia, there is less distinction between ‘traditional media’ and ‘new media.’ Nearly everything is growing, which allows for more robust prospects across the industry—prospects that we find enormously exciting.”

”We are uniquely familiar with the development of the global media industry and we have distinctive insight into how it is likely to evolve in Asia,” said Aiello. “We intend to make a meaningful contribution to this great story.”

Since exiting News Corp. Chernin founded The Chernin Group and Chernin Entertainment. Aiello exited STAR following its restructure last year.