Dinesh jain
Contributor
- Joined
- 3 Feb 2014
- Messages
- 13,559
- Reaction score
- 14,026
Will Rupert Murdoch-controlled 21st Century Fox
increase its stake in direct-to-home (DTH) operator Tata
Sky?
21st Century Fox will be talking to joint venture partner
Tata Sons to bring about some changes in the
shareholding structure. The definite proposals are not
clear at this stage.
Tata Sons owns 60 per cent in Tata Sky while 21st
Century Fox effectively holds 30 per cent. The remaining
10 per cent is held by Temasek Holdings. The DTH
operator has more than 11.5 million subscribers.
“The Tata Sky business is different because it’s a 30 per
cent shareholding and we are partners there. We have to
see what the future holds. What the shareholding and
capital structure there looks like remains to be seen. We
will be talking to our partners. You will probably see some
changes there,” 21st Century Fox chief executive officer
James Murdoch said.
According to James Murdoch, Tata Sky is a tremendous
business that can be a real contributor to the
conglomerate going forward.
He also feels that the Indian DTH sector, which has six
private players, could see consolidation. “The Indian DTH
sector will probably see some consolidation in the
medium term and there are still one or two too many but
we are growing really well,” he averred.
earlier reported Tata Sky’s FY14
financial performance. The company’s net loss in FY14
stood at Rs 280.41 crore (Rs 2.80 billion) compared to Rs
378.93 crore (Rs 3.79 billion) a year ago. Profit (before
depreciation, finance, tax and prior-period items) jumped
115.45 per cent to Rs 591.28 crore (Rs 5.91 billion), as
against Rs 274.44 crore (Rs 2.74 billion) in FY13.
Almost ruling out the possibility of listing the India
business in future, James Murdoch stated that 21st
Century Fox wants to avoid complications. Star India runs
a strong entertainment and sports broadcast business in
India.
“Generally speaking, we [21st Century Fox] have been on a
path to simplify our business and to simplify it around
these investments in bigger chunks. I think all of us need
to be cautious about creating new complications, new
public shareholdings and so on and so forth as we go
forward. Certainly, it is one of the things that we want to
highlight and something that it has got incredible
prospects going forward,” he added.
He was also confident that the Star business would start
generating cash flow in 5–10 years once sports
investment started showing results.
“We think we are going to show really good cash flow
growth from the Star businesses and we will highlight that
to our investors and hope they understand that it is a real
contributor to our growth over the next number of years,”
he said.
James Murdoch was speaking at the Goldman Sachs 24th
Annual Communacopia Conference in New York.
On another occasion, James Murdoch had stated that if
Star India kept investing in putting more creative and
innovative content on screen, it would become a $1-billion
EBITDA business by the turn of the decade. The company
is hopeful of touching $500 million EBITDA by FY18.
Star India, which broadcasts more than 40 channels in
seven languages, has made significant investments in
sports ever since it took over the India business of the
erstwhile ESPN Star Sports. Apart from acquiring cricket
content from the BCCI and ICC, the broadcaster has
invested in local leagues like kabaddi, soccer, badminton
and hockey.
Earlier, the broadcaster had entered the Telugu market by
acquiring Maa TV’s broadcast business for $375 million.
Prior to that, it had completed the acquisition of Asianet
Communications.
Will 21st Century Fox up its stake in Tata Sky? | TelevisionPost.com
increase its stake in direct-to-home (DTH) operator Tata
Sky?
21st Century Fox will be talking to joint venture partner
Tata Sons to bring about some changes in the
shareholding structure. The definite proposals are not
clear at this stage.
Tata Sons owns 60 per cent in Tata Sky while 21st
Century Fox effectively holds 30 per cent. The remaining
10 per cent is held by Temasek Holdings. The DTH
operator has more than 11.5 million subscribers.
“The Tata Sky business is different because it’s a 30 per
cent shareholding and we are partners there. We have to
see what the future holds. What the shareholding and
capital structure there looks like remains to be seen. We
will be talking to our partners. You will probably see some
changes there,” 21st Century Fox chief executive officer
James Murdoch said.
According to James Murdoch, Tata Sky is a tremendous
business that can be a real contributor to the
conglomerate going forward.
He also feels that the Indian DTH sector, which has six
private players, could see consolidation. “The Indian DTH
sector will probably see some consolidation in the
medium term and there are still one or two too many but
we are growing really well,” he averred.
earlier reported Tata Sky’s FY14
financial performance. The company’s net loss in FY14
stood at Rs 280.41 crore (Rs 2.80 billion) compared to Rs
378.93 crore (Rs 3.79 billion) a year ago. Profit (before
depreciation, finance, tax and prior-period items) jumped
115.45 per cent to Rs 591.28 crore (Rs 5.91 billion), as
against Rs 274.44 crore (Rs 2.74 billion) in FY13.
Almost ruling out the possibility of listing the India
business in future, James Murdoch stated that 21st
Century Fox wants to avoid complications. Star India runs
a strong entertainment and sports broadcast business in
India.
“Generally speaking, we [21st Century Fox] have been on a
path to simplify our business and to simplify it around
these investments in bigger chunks. I think all of us need
to be cautious about creating new complications, new
public shareholdings and so on and so forth as we go
forward. Certainly, it is one of the things that we want to
highlight and something that it has got incredible
prospects going forward,” he added.
He was also confident that the Star business would start
generating cash flow in 5–10 years once sports
investment started showing results.
“We think we are going to show really good cash flow
growth from the Star businesses and we will highlight that
to our investors and hope they understand that it is a real
contributor to our growth over the next number of years,”
he said.
James Murdoch was speaking at the Goldman Sachs 24th
Annual Communacopia Conference in New York.
On another occasion, James Murdoch had stated that if
Star India kept investing in putting more creative and
innovative content on screen, it would become a $1-billion
EBITDA business by the turn of the decade. The company
is hopeful of touching $500 million EBITDA by FY18.
Star India, which broadcasts more than 40 channels in
seven languages, has made significant investments in
sports ever since it took over the India business of the
erstwhile ESPN Star Sports. Apart from acquiring cricket
content from the BCCI and ICC, the broadcaster has
invested in local leagues like kabaddi, soccer, badminton
and hockey.
Earlier, the broadcaster had entered the Telugu market by
acquiring Maa TV’s broadcast business for $375 million.
Prior to that, it had completed the acquisition of Asianet
Communications.
Will 21st Century Fox up its stake in Tata Sky? | TelevisionPost.com