STAR in South Indian JV

HONG
KONG/MUMBAI, November 14: STAR Group is setting up a joint venture with
Bangalore-based Jupiter Entertainment
Ventures in a deal that gives the News Corporation subsidiary a stake in a
slate of South Indian channels.

The venture with Rajeev
Chandrasekhar's Jupiter Entertainment will be named STAR Jupiter Entertainment
Television. The JV will become the majority shareholder of Asianet
Communications Limited (ACL), which currently broadcasts channels in Kannada
(Suvarna), Telugu (Sitara) and Malayalam (Asianet, Asianet Plus). Vijay, the
Tamil-language general-entertainment channel currently operated and owned by
STAR, will now come under STAR Jupiter, which is expected to make additional
investments towards developing and launching new channels in South India in the
coming months.

ACL's vice chairman and
managing director, K Madhavan, will continue in his role at STAR Jupiter, as
will other members of the ACL team.

Paul Aiello, the CEO of STAR, said, "This is a game-changing partnership for
STAR. It allows us to connect deeply with the rapidly growing South Indian
audience by providing compelling television that truly resonates with the
viewers there. And by adding the South Indian channels to our extensive
portfolio of Hindi and regional-language channels, STAR takes a big step
towards becoming a truly national broadcaster in India."

Uday Shankar, the CEO of
STAR India, added, "South India represents the next big growth story for
Indian television. With this strategic partnership, we should be able to
capture this growth opportunity and create a much bigger platform for creative
talent that would offer the South Indian a lot more exciting content. The partnership
also offers an exciting opportunity to those advertisers who are looking at
nationwide reach vehicles and reinforce this with strong regional
channels."

STAR and Jupiter are also
exploring a wide range of new areas of cooperation, including film co-production
by Fox STAR Studios India and by Indigo Movies, Jupiter Entertainment’s
movie-production arm.

—By Mansha Daswani