Thakur
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The deal street in the media sector, noisy for the last several months, has entered a lull phase. Companies have taken time out on the realisation that there is scope for organic expansion and there aren’t any valuable assets for purchase at this stage. Star India, which has led the acquisition battlefield in the television-broadcasting sector, will perhaps take a long pause.
The purchase of Maa Television Network, which is currently awaiting regulatory approvals, completes Star’s geographical footprint in the main TV markets of India. It allows Star to enter the Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) Telugu TV market and fills a vital gap in the network’s portfolio.
The Indian arm of 21st Century Fox gets four Telugu channels—Maa TV (GEC), Maa Movies, Maa Music and Maa Gold—to grow in India’s second-biggest cable & satellite (C&S) market. After taking charge as Star India CEO in 2007, Uday Shankar made it his mission to expand to the southern-language markets where the company was absent, while maintaining leadership in the Hindi entertainment space. He took the acquisition route and targeted Kerala-based Asianet Communications, for which the total price paid was $557 million.
The complete buyout evolved in stages starting from August 2008 and gave Star the Malayalam and Kannada markets, while in Tamil the network had presence through Vijay Television.
The only missing piece in the southern land of India was Andhra Pradesh. In the other two big regional-language markets, Shankar decided to launch general entertainment channels (GECs) in 2008.
Star Jalsha was launched in September 2008 to tap the Bengali market, and Star Pravah, the Marathi GEC, was born two months later. In both these languages, Star ran news channels as a minority equity partner, with ABP Group holding 74 per cent stake. Star finally exited the TV news business in 2012.
Star’s regional-language strategy, thus, took shape in 2008.
There are a few, albeit small, language markets like Gujarati and Punjabi where Star still does not have a presence. For entry into these markets, Star can launch on its own and does not need to be on the acquisition path. Shankar identified sports as the other big growth area for Star and needed ESPN out so that it could pump in capital more aggressively and control market share independently.
ESPN Star Sports (ESS), the equal joint venture company between ESPN and News Corp (now 21st Century Fox) for the Asian market, was losing money.
While News Corp was keen on betting big, ESPN was reluctant to invest aggressively and was shifting focus to the US market where Rupert Murdoch was about to launch the all-sports network Fox Sports 1.
What followed was the buyout of ESPN’s 50 per cent stake in ESS in 2012 for $335 million. Though it was an Asia acquisition, India was planned to be the main beneficiary
Read more at:
http://www.televisionpost.com/special-reports/after-spate-of-deals-ma-in-tv-sector-enters-lull-phase/
The purchase of Maa Television Network, which is currently awaiting regulatory approvals, completes Star’s geographical footprint in the main TV markets of India. It allows Star to enter the Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) Telugu TV market and fills a vital gap in the network’s portfolio.
The Indian arm of 21st Century Fox gets four Telugu channels—Maa TV (GEC), Maa Movies, Maa Music and Maa Gold—to grow in India’s second-biggest cable & satellite (C&S) market. After taking charge as Star India CEO in 2007, Uday Shankar made it his mission to expand to the southern-language markets where the company was absent, while maintaining leadership in the Hindi entertainment space. He took the acquisition route and targeted Kerala-based Asianet Communications, for which the total price paid was $557 million.
The complete buyout evolved in stages starting from August 2008 and gave Star the Malayalam and Kannada markets, while in Tamil the network had presence through Vijay Television.
The only missing piece in the southern land of India was Andhra Pradesh. In the other two big regional-language markets, Shankar decided to launch general entertainment channels (GECs) in 2008.
Star Jalsha was launched in September 2008 to tap the Bengali market, and Star Pravah, the Marathi GEC, was born two months later. In both these languages, Star ran news channels as a minority equity partner, with ABP Group holding 74 per cent stake. Star finally exited the TV news business in 2012.
Star’s regional-language strategy, thus, took shape in 2008.
There are a few, albeit small, language markets like Gujarati and Punjabi where Star still does not have a presence. For entry into these markets, Star can launch on its own and does not need to be on the acquisition path. Shankar identified sports as the other big growth area for Star and needed ESPN out so that it could pump in capital more aggressively and control market share independently.
ESPN Star Sports (ESS), the equal joint venture company between ESPN and News Corp (now 21st Century Fox) for the Asian market, was losing money.
While News Corp was keen on betting big, ESPN was reluctant to invest aggressively and was shifting focus to the US market where Rupert Murdoch was about to launch the all-sports network Fox Sports 1.
What followed was the buyout of ESPN’s 50 per cent stake in ESS in 2012 for $335 million. Though it was an Asia acquisition, India was planned to be the main beneficiary
Read more at:
http://www.televisionpost.com/special-reports/after-spate-of-deals-ma-in-tv-sector-enters-lull-phase/
