ITV

Tag: Hathway

  • Star India split into two separate units under Nair, Mukerjea

    Star India split into two separate units under Nair, Mukerjea

    MUMBAI / NEW DELHI: In what is a major organisational revamp within Star India, the functions and management of the group have been split between CEO Peter Mukerjea and COO Sameer Nair.

    Nair has been given the role of CEO Star Entertainment India while Mukerjea is now the CEO of Star Group India.
    Essentially, what has happened is that Star India has been split up into an operational entity and a corporate entity.

    Mukerjea will lead Star Group in India as its CEO, responsible for all corporate functions such as legal, finance, government affairs, corporate communications as well as managing Stars investments including Tata Sky, Hathway, Balaji and MCCS.

    He will also spearhead the development of new business opportunities in India. Mukerjea will continue to report to Star Group CEO Michelle Guthrie.

    Star Entertainment India, which is now fully under Nair’s charge, will oversee day-to-day programming, marketing, advertising sales and distribution functions.

    Nair has also been given the remit of expanding Star’s media presence from its existing TV channels Star Plus, Star Movies, Star Gold, Star News, Star One, Channel [V], Star Utsav and Star Vijay, into new media including wireless and broadband internet platforms.

    Nair will be reporting directly to Star Group COO Steve Askew.
    The changes are part of a reorganisation emanating from Star’s headquarters in Hong Kong with Askew being given additional charge as president of Star Entertainment. Askew has been Star COO since December 2003.

    Askews appointment is effective immediately. In his expanded role, he will oversee Stars operating divisions across the region, with his portfolio expanding from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and the Middle East to India.
    Commenting on the announcement, Guthrie said, The reorganization reflects the scale to which our operations have grown in India. The new structure will enable us to optimize our resources in expanding our leadership position in the television landscape while aggressively creating new opportunities in Indias thriving marketplace.

    According to Guthrie, Sameer was the key driving force to our ratings turnaround in India in 2001. Since then, Sameers intuitive knowledge of television entertainment has helped Star India deliver record results in ratings and revenues.

    “His promotion is a testament to the contribution he has made to build Star into the number one network in India. The new reporting structure aligns our creative forces and operational teams across the region, enabling us to continue developing compelling and successful content across different delivery platforms for years to come.

    Guthrie continued, Peter has done an exceptional job in leading our highly talented local team to grow our businesses exponentially in India. Under the spin-off, we will be able to exert a greater impact on our existing investments in India, particularly with the imminent launch of the Tata Sky DTH service.

    “Peters unique insights, extensive experience and strong business acumen will be invaluable as Star actively pursues new business opportunities to serve consumers throughout India.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com late in the evening, Nair expressed happiness at the confidence the top management of Star had shown in him.

    Quizzed on his agenda after the promotion, Nair said, “The basic aim of the company remains unchanged and that is to continue making entertaining content and find ways to monetise them more effectively across all delivery platforms.”

    Though Nair was not forthcoming on the company’s plans relating to Internet and wireless (medium), he did admit that these are two areas that will get some focussed attention.

  • MSOs moot Re 1 a day rent scheme on STBs

    MSOs moot Re 1 a day rent scheme on STBs

    MUMBAI: The digital set-top box (STB) that will sit in consumer homes to receive pay channels will come cheap. Facing the threat of competition from direct-to-home (DTH) service providers, cable TV operators are preparing to enter the conditional access system (CAS) regime with an aggressive price plan.

    Multi-system operator Hathway Cable & Datacom has decided to introduce a rental scheme on its STBs with a fee as low as Re 1 a day. Incablenet is likely to follow suit but will be finalising its pricing on Monday, sources say.

    “We will be charging a rent of Re 1 per day on our boxes. Consumers will have to pay upfront Rs 999 as a refundable deposit,” Hathway Cable & Datacom CEO K Jayaraman tells Indiantelevision.com. Currently, the boxes are available for purchase at Rs 3,000 with no rental schemes.

    Even in Kolkata, Manthan Cable Network is considering a rental scheme of Rs 50 per month on an initial deposit of Rs 800-1,000. Competition can further drag down prices. “We are planning to charge a rent of Rs 50 per month on our STBs,” says Manthan director Gurmeet Singh.

    Cablecomm Services Pvt Ltd, another big operator in Kolkata, is also planning to structure its tariff plans for the CAS era.

    Siticable, which is the only MSO that has operations in the three metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata where CAS is going to be initially launched, could not be contacted for its comments. Chennai is the other city where CAS is already in place, but has seen slow uptake in demand.

    While broadcasters have expressed concern on the supply of boxes to seed the market at such short notice, cable networks have dismissed such fears as “being fictitious.” A phase-wise rollout of CAS in the three metros and an existing stockpile of STBs will make the transition smooth, operators say.

    “The industry has a stockpile of 800,000 boxes while estimates put the number of cable TV households in the notified areas of south Delhi and Mumbai for the first phase of rollout at over 600,000. Based on the demand, the boxes can be quickly replenished to keep the supply line flowing. It will take around one month to import the boxes,” says Jayaraman.

    Kolkata, where Hathway has no operations, has an estimated total of around 250,000 cable TV homes to be covered in the first zone CAS rollout. “We have a stock of 100,000 boxes and are offering 195 TV channels on our digital cable,” says Indian Cable Net CEO Amit Nag. Last year, Siticable acquired Indian Cable Net from the RPG Group to become the dominant MSO in Kolkata.

    Manthan, the largest operator in south Kolkata, has installed a digital headend and is in the process of putting its encryption system in place. “Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority has around 1.8 million cable TV homes. The logistic cycles will be worked out,” says Singh.

    Mumbai and Delhi together have around seven million cable homes. “With CAS, we expect to give healthy competition to DTH. The ground will also get more organised and volumes, as they pick up, will drive down the cost of boxes,” says Atul Saraf, one of the founder-promoters of 7 Star.