Star Targets Us, Uk Cable Tv Markets

Star TV will introduce Indian programmes in the US and the UK to cater to ethnic Asians. The move comes close on the heels of Sony Entertainment TV and Zee TV making forays in the cable TV market abroad.

Star has also decided to phase out some of the international programming like The Oprah Winfrey Show on Star Plus' service designed for South Asia and shift them to the newly-introduced Star World. The vacant slots are to be filled with Indian-made English programmes.

Star TV's chief executive (South Asia), R Basu said, "We have signed a deal with Direc TV in the US and a Lester-based terrestrial network in the UK to provide a package of about six hours of Indian programmes, including news, and the service will start soon."

 

Direc TV is one of the three largest digital TV platform in the US having over 4 million subscribers, while Lester-based Midlands Broadcasting Corporation is one of the companies which has obtained licence from the UK regulatory authority to operate local terretsrial TV networks.

Both Sony and Zee TV have launched a service targetted at ethnic Asians in in the US in July. While Sony, like Star TV, is on the Direc TV platform, Zee is on another digital DTH platform of EchoStar and claims to be broadcasting for the last three years across the UK and Europe on Astra-1D with 150,000 Household Connections in the UK. Sony launched its service in the UK in March this year claiming to be reaching 17,000 susbcribers of the pay TV.

The programme package being formulated for the US and UK television platform by Star TV would be a mix of programmes including The Shotgun Shoot, A Mouthful of Sky, Chandrakanta and daily news bulletins. "The Star logo would be carried on both the US and UK television networks," Basu said. The programme package for the UK and the US would also include some music-based programmes aired by Channel V.

The process of shifting some international programming from Star Plus to Star World will start in September. Though Star TV is not increasing its Hindi programming on Star Plus (currently pegged at about 41 per cent of the total programming), it will be looking at introducing on Star Plus more English programmes made in India like Bhupen Hazarika and Kalpana Lajmi's "Dawn".

"Star World has been introduced in South Asia for catering to hardcore fans of Star's international programming and many programmes will be shifted from Star Plus to Star World over a period of time," Star TV India's senior vice-president (corporate affairs & publicity), Arrow Sinha Roy, said.

"The Oprah Winfrey Show would exit from Star Plus next month. But the likes of Bold and The Beautiful and Baywatch will remain," he added. According to Roy, Star TV will fill the vacant slots with new English programmes of India.