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Tag: News Corp

  • Lachlan Murdoch crowned as siblings take billion-dollar bow

    Lachlan Murdoch crowned as siblings take billion-dollar bow

    MUMBAI: The Murdoch family succession drama has finally reached its climax. Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s favoured son and ideological ally, has emerged with undisputed control of Fox Corp and News Corp after a protracted courtroom battle in Nevada. The denouement sees three siblings—Prudence MacLeod, Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch—cut out of the empire altogether, each walking away with a billion-dollar payday.

    The companies announced on Monday that all litigation over the Murdoch Family Trust had been terminated. New trusts will be created for Lachlan and his half-sisters Grace and Chloe, with their combined holdings pooled into a new vehicle, LGC Holdco. That entity will command about 36.2 per cent of Fox’s Class B voting shares and 33.1 per cent of News Corp’s Class B stock. Crucially, sole voting power sits with Lachlan as managing director. The arrangement runs until 2050, effectively locking in his control for a generation. Rupert, 94, retains the honorary role of chairman emeritus.

    The three departing heirs are not just sidelined—they are barred from returning. Their buyouts, partly funded by the sale of 16.9 million Fox and 14.2 million News Corp shares previously held by the trust, will be followed by the disposal of their remaining token stakes. A long-term standstill agreement ensures they, or their affiliates, cannot repurchase stock or interfere with the companies. Within six months, they will be gone in every sense: no shares, no votes, no say.

    The outcome caps years of intrigue. James Murdoch, increasingly estranged from the empire, has openly backed Democrats and liberal causes. Elisabeth, once seen as a rival for the top job, nurtured her own ambitions in television. Prudence, though less visible, was part of the bloc resisting Rupert’s 2023 bid to rewrite the trust in Lachlan’s favour. That manoeuvre was struck down by a Nevada court last winter, which found Rupert, Lachlan and their advisers had acted in “bad faith.” The ruling forced negotiations that culminated in this week’s truce.

    For Rupert, the settlement is as much about politics as power. By engineering billion-dollar exits for his dissenting heirs, he has secured not only Lachlan’s throne but also the conservative orientation of his media empire, anchored by Fox News. The prospect of a posthumous coup—James and Elisabeth uniting to steer the company leftward—has been neutralised.

    Fox’s board endorsed the outcome, calling Lachlan’s leadership “important to guiding the company’s strategy and success.” Investors may also breathe easier: the messy trust fight, which threatened to destabilise one of the world’s most influential media conglomerates, has been neatly resolved.

    It is an ending with all the hallmarks of the Murdoch mythos: courtroom secrecy in Reno, billion-dollar pay-offs, siblings sidelined, and one heir enthroned. Rupert, the ultimate showman, has once again scripted the finale to his family saga—leaving Lachlan in command until mid-century.

  • Streamer Dazn acquires Australian Foxtel group from News Corp & Telstra for A$3.4 bn

    Streamer Dazn acquires Australian Foxtel group from News Corp & Telstra for A$3.4 bn

    MUMBAI: It’s a deal that’s happening  down under but it’s given streaming platform Dazn group an upper hand as it continues its march towards spreading its wings even further globally. News Corp and Telstra owners of the Foxtel group– once a prized pay TV operator in Australia now turned streamer – have agreed to sell it to the Dazn group in a deal that values it at A$3.4 billion, including debt. Dazn is a  privately-held global streamer owned by British-Ukrainian billionaire Len Blavatnik.

    Under the terms of the agreement, Dazn will pay News Corp’s loans to the tune  of $578 million in cash on account of Foxtel, give it a board seat and a six per cent shareholding in the acquiring company. 35 per cent Foxtel owner Telstra’s debt of A$128 million too will be repaid and it will end up with a three per cent minority interest in Dazn. Foxtel’s existing debt will be refinanced by Dazn when the deal closes. 

    Founded in 2016, Dazn has more than 3,000 employees and reported a top line of $3.2bn in 2023, having grown its annual revenues by over 50  per cent on average from 2020 to 2023, through diverse revenue streams comprising subscriptions, advertising, sponsorship, and transactional video on demand. It has more than 300 million viewers across 200 markets. Dazn streams over 90,000 live events annually and is the home of European football, women’s football, boxing and MMA, and the NFL internationally. The platform features sports and leagues from around the world including Bundesliga, Serie A, LALIGA, Ligue 1, Formula 1, NBA, Moto GP, and the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.

    A press release mentioned that the agreement follows a strategic and financial review of Foxtel as part of its  ongoing efforts to optimise its portfolio and simplify its corporate structure. With Dazn’s global reach, industry leading technology and broad content portfolio, the proposed transaction enhances Foxtel’s position as a digital-first, streaming-focused business, led by the current CEO, Patrick Delany, and his management team. The Foxtel group includes the Foxtel, Hubbl, Flash, Kayo Sports and Binge streaming brands along with Fox Sports and Foxtel Media. Foxtel has 4.7 million streaming subscribers

    The transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2025, is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. For News Corp financial reporting purposes, Foxtel will be classified as discontinued operations as of the second quarter of fiscal 2025. 

    “This agreement is a victory for News Corp shareholders, Dazn, and sport fans in Australia and around the world,” said News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson. “Foxtel has been transformed into a genuine digital and streaming leader in Australia, and we believe Dazn is the right owner to take the business to the next level with their technological capabilities, global footprint and compelling sports rights. This transaction also allows News Corp to focus on our other growth pillars of Dow Jones, digital real estate and book publishing, while benefiting from repayment of our shareholder loans and an improved credit profile. We are proud to be a long-term partner of Dazn and its talented team.”

    Dazn chief executive officer Shay Segev said: “Australians watch more sport than any other country in the world, which makes this deal an incredibly exciting opportunity for Dazn to enter a key market, marking another step in our long-term strategy to become the global home of sport. Foxtel is a successful business that has undergone a remarkable digital transformation in recent years, and we are confident that our global reach and relentless pursuit of innovation will continue to drive the business forward and ensure long-term success. 
    “We are committed to supporting and investing in Foxtel’s television and streaming services, across both sports and entertainment, using our world-leading technology to further enhance the viewing experience for customers. We are also committed to using our global reach to export Australia’s most popular sports to new markets around the world, and we will continue to promote women’s and under-represented sports. 

    “We’re looking forward to working closely with Patrick Delany and his team, as well as News Corp and Telstra as shareholders in DAZN, to realise our ambitious vision for the future of sport entertainment.” 

    Foxtel chairman Siobhan McKenna, said the agreement with DAZN was international recognition of the transformation of Foxtel from an incumbent pay TV operator to a sports and entertainment digital and streaming leader. “Over the last seven years the Foxtel team, with the strong support of News, have achieved an extraordinary turnaround in an intensely competitive environment.” 

    Foxtel Group CEO Patrick Delany said: “News Corp’s unwavering support and guidance has seen Foxtel successfully reinvent itself into a dynamic, streaming-led business delivering strong financial performance. We are excited to embark on the next chapter with Dazn, a premier global sports streaming provider, as our new shareholder. Dazn’s backing will enhance our strategy needed, provide access to their global reach, and strengthen the infrastructure and technology to accelerate our transformation. Most importantly, we will continue to be a proudly Australian-based business, led by local management, committed to delivering locally-produced sports and entertainment content for our audiences.” 
     

  • Murdoch loses family trust case in Nevada

    Murdoch loses family trust case in Nevada

    MUMBAI: This is one battle he lost but he says he intends to fight it. 93 year old media baron Rupert Murdoch is one tough guy. Even at his age.

    He wanted to change the family trust, which gave his  four children equal voting rights to his empire, so that control would vest in his eldest son Lachlan’s hands who shared his right wing political beliefs. But he lost the case over the weekend when a Reno-Nevada probate commissioner  ruled against him and said he was acting in bad faith, when he tried to change the terms of the irrevocable trust and leave Lachlan in charge. 

    Murdoch owns 40 per cent of the voting stock in both Fox Corp and News Corp through the trust.  Upon his death James, Elisabeth , Lachlan and Prudence were to share control  of the trust equally. But the old man  wanted to change the terms of the trust  and put Lachlan, the CEO of Fox and chairman of News Corp  fully in charge upon his death. This was something his other children were not inclined to.

    Hence, they took their father to court in Nevada which was a probate court and was not open to the public. Earlier, a probate commissioner had told Murdoch senior that he could change the terms if what he was attempting to do was in good faith and in the best interests of his heirs. Murdoch senior had argued that were his other three children – Prudence, James and Elisabeth – to have voting power, they  would lean towards making his news outlets moderate which would harm their prospects as it would alienate the hard right wingers who supported it. 

    But the trio did not buy into this as they felt they would be left out and took their father and brother to court in Nevada. A case they won, following which they are now saying they would like mend and heal family relationships. 

    However, the family feud does not seem to have ended as the elder Murdoch said he was going to appeal against the probate commissioner’s decision.

  • Rupert Murdoch to merge Fox Corp and News Corp?

    Rupert Murdoch to merge Fox Corp and News Corp?

    Mumbai : Media baron, Rupert Murdoch has begun the process of reuniting his media empire, according to News Corp and Fox Corp, which announced on Friday that they would consider combining at his request, nearly a decade after the companies split.

    Both have formed special committees to review potential merger proposals, they said.

    If the merger goes through, Murdoch will have more control over his media assets and the companies will be able to cut costs. Media companies are competing with deep-pocketed social media and content websites for users’ attention while experiencing decades-low growth in advertising sales.

    After years of global expansion, Murdoch split his empire in 2013, putting the print business under the newly formed public entity News Corp and the TV and entertainment business under 21st Century Fox.

    Murdoch stated at the time that his vast media holdings had become “increasingly complex,” and that a new structure would make operations easier. The separation also protected Fox’s entertainment assets from any potential financial consequences of a phone hacking scandal involving the media conglomerate’s now-defunct News of the World publication in the United Kingdom.

    According to a person familiar with the decision-making process at the time, the thinking was that separating the companies would ultimately generate value for shareholders. In 2019, Fox sold the majority of its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co for $71 billion.

    According to Wall Street analysts, the sale focused Fox on live events such as news and sports rather than “disruptive” scripted entertainment content on streaming platforms. The major streaming services, on the other hand, have begun to breach the protective moat. Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc, two tech behemoths with deep pockets, have begun bidding for sports rights, securing the rights to stream major league baseball, soccer, and football games.

    Fox recently renewed a long-term contract with the NFL to continue broadcasting Sunday afternoon games, but gave up Thursday Night Football to Amazon. According to a person familiar with the proposal, reuniting Fox and News Corp would give the combined companies greater scale to compete and complement their assets. The combined companies would generate approximately $24 billion in revenue.

    Murdoch, currently owns nearly all of the stock in both companies. Lachlan Murdoch is the chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation. Companies that use such arrangements typically require subsequent mergers to be approved by a majority of shareholders who are not related to the controlling shareholder, though it is unclear whether this will be the case in this case.

    According to Refinitiv, as of Friday’s market close, News Corp. had a market cap of $9.31 billion and Fox Corp. had a market cap of $16.84 billion. In after-hours trading, News Corp shares rose 5 per cent , while Fox rose about 1 per cent.

  • BBC Studios strengthens digital news team with new appointments

    BBC Studios strengthens digital news team with new appointments

    Mumbai: BBC Studios has announced a number of new roles aimed at further bolstering its digital news team. As a part of this expansion, News Corp SVP and global head of product Jennie Baird is brought on board to a newly created position of EVP and MD of digital news and streaming. 

    In this new role, Baird will lead on the development of the vision and investment plans needed to continue driving growth and audiences for the BBC’s digital news products around the globe. She will report to BBC Studios Americas president Rebecca Glashow, who is responsible for developing and commercialising the BBC’s digital news portfolio outside of the UK. 

    Baird will also assume responsibility for the BBC’s recently launched documentary and podcast services – BBC Select and BBC Podcasts, which are available to audiences in the US and Canada, said the statement.

    “Jennie is a digital heavyweight in the constantly evolving news media landscape,” said Glashow. “As record audiences turn to the BBC for news they can trust, the creation of this role and her appointment reflect our ambitions to further reinforce our global news team and double down on our commitment to providing a world-leading digital offering.”

    During her tenure at News Corp, Baird was responsible for developing digital solutions for News Corp’s range of media companies including Dow Jones, News UK, News Corp Australia, New York Post, Storyful, Realtor.com, Foxtel and HarperCollins Publishers. 

    “I am thrilled to be joining an organisation whose very name is synonymous with quality,” stated Baird on her new role. “At a moment in time when impartial, accurate, and trusted information is more essential than ever, I look forward to helping grow the digital reach of BBC News outside the UK, and to exploring innovative ways the BBC might better serve global news consumers.”

  • K Madhavan: From God’s own country to leading Walt Disney’s Indian mousehouse

    K Madhavan: From God’s own country to leading Walt Disney’s Indian mousehouse

    MUMBAI: When The Walt Disney Co international operations and direct-to-consumer chairman Rebecca Campbell was scouting for an executive to fill the big shoes of former Star India, Disney India and APAC head Uday Shankar, she did not have to look far. Though the announcement took some time a-coming, K Madhavan, country manager of Star & Disney India, was the obvious choice. As the overseer of the media conglomerate’s television and studios business in India, Madhavan had worked closely with Uday, until the latter departed in late 2020 to concentrate on an entrepreneurial venture with his former boss James Murdoch.

    An unassuming executive from Kerala, K Madhavan is known to be a hard core numbers man with an extremely razor sharp financial mind. He did well in academia as well; he holds a post graduate degree in commerce, and is a certified associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers. He cut his teeth as an investment banker, when he was roped in as a director to help turn around ailing Malayalam network Asianet in 1999. Within a year, he fortified his position and was elevated to MD & CEO of Asianet Communications.

    His keen understanding of what Malayalam viewers want to watch facilitated the growth of Asianet’s viewership and made it the favourite of those who live in God’s own country. The network was turned around and it soon became a dominant player in Kerala. He did this even as ownership of the network changed hands, more than once – from promoter Reji Menon to the-then BPL and now BJP top shot and venture financier Rajeev Chandrasekhar. In fact, K Madhavan, ended up owning a tidy piece of it as well, as he grew the network’s footprint in Kannada in concert with Chandrashekar as chairman.  

    Until, of course, it landed in the hands of News Corp supremo Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV in 2008. Star acquired a majority stake in Asianet’s general entertainment channels (separated from the news business) for a handsome $235 million and an assumption of $20 million in debt. Madhavan pocketed a neat sum for his efforts even as he was appointed as Star India’s south head in 2009.

    From thereon, there was no looking back. When Star India took control of Asianet, its portfolio consisted of Asianet and Asianet Plus (Malayalam GECs), Asianet Suvarna (a Kannada GEC) and Telugu channel Sitara. To that was added Star Vijay from the Star India network. Several other channels followed: Asianet Movies, Star Maa (through an acquisition of MAA Television network). Today, it has more than 13 pure play southern language channels, covering general entertainment, movies, in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Of course, Star India itself has many other regional language channels covering Marathi and Bengali. At the helm of this dizzying growth was Madhavan with Uday, and the Murdochs giving him total freedom. Observers today value the southern language business of Star at around $3 billion (valued at $1.33 billion in 2013 at the time of its acquisition by Star).

    When The Walt Disney Co acquired Twenty First Century Fox a couple of years ago for a massive $72 billion, along with it came all of its Indian assets including the southern language business. Uday, used to working in the maverick style of the Murdochs, quickly had K Madhavan hoicked as country manager of Star & Disney India, leading the media conglomerate’s television and studios business, while he was bumped upstairs to look after the APAC business and Hotstar directly.

    When Uday decided to turn entrepreneur in 2020, day to day operations were left in the hands of K Madhavan, who worked closely with Campbell at the worst of times when the media and entertainment industry – and  Star and Disney India – had to face lockdowns courtesy the pandemic and an acceleration towards digital video consumption. The way he steered the company impressed the Disney headquarters in Burbank.

    “A skilled leader with an extensive background in media, KM has taken our vast Star networks and local content production businesses to new heights,” said Campbell on his elevation. “I have seen first-hand how he has adeptly managed our India business, which has been and will continue to be critical to our global and regional strategy.”

    With the leadership issue for Star India and Disney India settled, it should lead to some clarity on the road ahead for the company which did an estimated top line in excess of $1.7 billion last year. K Madhavan will now be able to steer the network and make it future ready in a country where many homes have antiquated CRT TV sets, many have yet to buy one, while a small fraction have high-end 4K sets even as some are graduating to HD, and the young are increasingly consuming video content on their handsets.

    Like Uday, he has the respect and attention of Burbank, Disney's and Star India's senior leadership who hold his strategic decision making and vision for the group in high regard. Like Uday, he has an entrepreneural streak, combined with a strong systems approach which should bode well for him in an organisation which thrives because of its processes-driven environment. And of course his deep understanding of what the Indian video viewing consumer wants to watch. His success at Asianet bears testimony to that. The only difference: the canvas is larger and wider now and covers a swathe of demographics, languages and platforms, right from TV to movies to digital.

    To his advantage, K Madhavan has the track record and the wherewithal to take the right steps. After all, not every executive can make the transition from heading a small network in God’s own country to leading India’s largest media and entertainment network.

  • James Murdoch resigns from News Corp board

    James Murdoch resigns from News Corp board

    MUMBAI: Truly, a saga has come to an end. James Murdoch once considered to be the successor to Rupert Murdoch has resigned from the News Corp board yesterday. James, who helped his father build his Asian empire under Star TV and later at 20th Century Fox and then Fox, was associated with his father’s businesses for more than 20 years.

    The reason for his resignation according to a filing by the company with the US regulators: “My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions.”

    Rupert and James’ elder brother Lachlan accepted his resignation saying: We’re grateful to James for his many years of service to the company. We wish him the very best in his future endeavours.”

    James’ departure brings to the forefront the differences that have arisen between him and Lachlan and Rupert. Rupert has been a pretty strong supporter of Donald Trump and has conservative views, while James has Democrat leanings and has been rooting for Joe Biden through donations.

    This apart, the newspapers under News Corp have been pretty blasé in their coverage of the Australian wildfires, something that has irked James and he and his wife Kathryn have protested against the media conglomerate’s stance on climate change.

    James was CEO Twenty First Century Fox before its entertainment assets were sold to Disney a couple of years ago.

    News Corp owns publications such as Wall Street Journal, The Times, The Sun and The Sunday Times in the UK, as well as a stable of Australian newspapers, including The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Herald Sun.

    Raj Nayak who worked with him at Star TV tweeted that he has fond memories of working with him during his tenure there. “A fabulous human being & a wonderful boss,” he added.

    Former Hathway Cable CEO K Jayaram said he had a tough time on the board with James during his tenure as he could not achieve his numbers. “But he was good at heart,” he concluded.

  • Murdoch survived & thrived, so will Chandra

    Murdoch survived & thrived, so will Chandra

    MUMBAI: There's alarm bells being sounded that Zee TV chairman Subhash Chandra and his dynamic sons Punit and Amit might be losing control of India's cable and satellite TV pioneering venture. Unconfirmed reports have been appearing about certain financial institutions selling promoter shares pledged with them. Are the concerns warranted? No! Absolutely not!

    More often than not, there have been canards floated around by vested interests that someone or the other is wanting out of the arrangement that Chandra’s elder son – Punit Goenka – has hammered out with the instituitions that have lent the family money on promoter shares pledged with them. These have appeared in a specific financial daily and have more often than not proved unfounded.

    Chandra and his family are finding themselves in a spot just like Rupert Murdoch did in the late eighties-early nineties. Murdoch had weighed his firm News Corp with some $7.6 billion in banking and institutional debt to fuel the massive rapid expansion of his media empire globally. He had bet that interest rates would drop; they rose instead. A banking crisis and an advertising market collapse hit global economies, pushing the company to the brink of bankruptcy. To add to his woes, the principal lenders had sold off parcels of debt to others making it a roster of 146 financial firms to which it owed the money and in 10 different currencies.

    The banks were getting a bout of nerves wondering whether they would be repaid ever. But Murdoch came up with an aggressive survival plan along with a Citibanker Anne Lane, who believed in his strategy. He began a roadshow to get the bankers’ approval for News Corp to continue to do business. Murdoch’s  first port of call was in Adelaide where at the Commonwealth Bank, he unabashedly told his other lenders that he would not be able to repay the debt in the form it was structured. The bankers howled and screamed, but Murdoch and Lane stood firm. The Ozzie at times got agitated about the fact that he had to placate his bankers and make them believe that he would come good. Three hours of harddselling and persuasion, and the bankers left without any commitment of extension.

    From there he flew to London and New York where the same pleading, cajoling and convincing continued with his lenders. A small bank in Pittsburgh was threatening to call in its $10 million loan; Murdoch along with Lane flew down to Pittsburgh and convinced its manager not to.

    The road show went on and Murdoch kept missing his repayment deadlines. From November 1990 to February 1991 he continued with his spiel non-stop. Until  he heard that all the banks had agreed to stand by him. They stated that they would freeze the nearly $8 billion in loans for the next three years. 

    The rest of course is history.  That  tough period helped Murdoch toughen himself up even further and he went on to further build his empire which Disney bought for about $72 billion, even as he retained control of the news business.

    There are parallels between Murdoch and Chandra. Both are first generation media entrepreneurs. While the former grew his media and entertainment empire, he failed at almost everything outside it. Ditto with Chandra and family who pledged their equity to fund his infrastructure projects, an area he was not very familiar with. Chandra and family are currently extracting his company from what some may call a finacial quagmire. Murdoch had his moment in the early nineties. Both were partners in the nineties in Zee TV's uplinking company and in cable TV arm Siticable, before deciding to part ways. Murdoch had relatively humble beginnings; he inherited a local publication in Australia; he swelled it to a global empire. Chandra’s origins too  were modest; he used to make massive food grain containers and toothpaste lamitubes. And then came his entertainment and media expansion, followed by a disastrous entry into infrastructure. Both Murdoch and Chandra read their respective markets wrong. Both suffered on account of market changes.

    Then, like Murdoch, Chandra and his sons are battling a crisis. They are facing it with their chins jutting out, that’s the degree of their confdience. And that's the mettle of their entrepreneurship. They have built a media company like no other in India with a clutch of channels and assets like Zee5.  A corporation  which has a reputation globally; one which is truly rooted in India, understands its audiences. but with a worldwide  presence. An organisation which is tightly run by a professional owner – Punit – with his father mentoring him-  and a team of managers cobbled togerther from the top most Indian and global  firms. They have been working on finding ways to reduce their costs: the daily newspaper DNA has shut down its print edition, retaining a digital presence.  Some of their infrastructure initiatives are on the block.

    Will they pull off a rescue of their battleship? Despite the so-called financial crisis, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd has been turning out enviable financial results in the last two quarters. Which apparently is not reflected in the share price that has been relatively subdued.

    We, at indiantelevision.com, are betting that the family Chandra will come sailing out of the storm ; they will most likely emerge a little  bruised but not battered. They have five months to find buyers for their pleadged equity shares. Which they will. All they need is time. Just like Murdoch did. If it sounds too simplistic a reasoning; only time will tell us whether it will come true. So keep watching this space.

  • News Corp’s new ad network takes on Facebook, Google

    News Corp’s new ad network takes on Facebook, Google

    MUMBAI: Training its guns at the digital-ad dominance of Google and Facebook, News Corp has launched a platform, News IQ, to let advertisers reach audiences across all of its online properties.

    According to an article on Axios, News IQ will pull audience data from sites such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Barron’s and give advertisers a way to reach specific audiences around safe content. The platform will launch globally over the coming months.

    News Corp is the latest publishing company to launch a data-based advertising network to win back digital ad dollars from Google and Facebook. Disney, NBC and Vox Media, and Verizon and Oath have all taken similar steps. What they lack in scale, they are hoping to offer more brand-safe content at scale—a major selling point for advertisers spooked by terrorist content and suicide videos.

    The product was built in Australia, where News Corp has a significant media footprint, and then brought to the US. The UK will be next.

    The launch partners will include Douglas Elliman, Seabourn Cruise Line, Fox Broadcasting Company, and the Dentsu Aegis Network. The News IQ team will generate specific data on advertising impressions and traffic across all of the publishing properties.

  • Comment: The rise and rise of Uday Shankar

    Comment: The rise and rise of Uday Shankar

    MUMBAI: From not having enough money to afford even a TV set in Delhi in 1991 when he was a newspaper reporter to heading Star India, one of the most admired Indian media and entertainment companies, for a decade to now being appointed as 21st Century Fox Asia president, it has been quite a journey for Uday Shankar. A well-deserved and rewarding one at that.

    Today, Shankar is one of the few professionals from India to get region-wide responsibility for a global media powerhouse. Executives such as Man Jit Singh, who heads Sony Pictures Home Entertainment globally, and Bedi A Singh, who was News Corp CFO for a long time, have preceded him but both are Indians who rose up the ranks in the US.

    Shankar has, however, earned his stripes growing the Star India business, which in the first quarter had an EBDITA of $100 million and is on course to hit $500 million in 2017-2018 (in the words of 21st Century Fox (21CF) chairman James Murdoch). The 2020 EBDITA target, as spelt out by 21CF, is twice that, and the Murdochs say it is well on course to be achieved.

    When he was handpicked by the then News Corp COO Peter Chernin to take over Star in October 2007 (some say on the advice of the then outgoing company head in India), Shankar knew very little about the entertainment business. All his experience had been in news–whether print or television. He had had stints with several print media publications (his first was The Times of India around 1990) as a political correspondent and last was as one of the founders of environment magazine Down To Earth before the TV news bug bit him.

    Shankar took to the TV medium with ferocity—doing stints at Zee TV’s news channel as a news producer, the Hindustan Times promoted Home TV (it shut down quickly), production house Sri Adhikari Brothers, Sahara TV, and then India Today group’s Aaj Tak and Headlines Today, two channels he helped stabilise and grow over the next six seven years. His talent for being a journalist who got things done did not go unnoticed and he was asked to lead Star News, a joint venture with Kolkata-based ABP group, after CEO Ravina Raj Kohli departed.

    It was at Star News that he blossomed as an executive—a TV exec to be precise—and caught the attention of Chernin and the Murdochs. The rest, as they say, is history.

    Today, under his leadership, the Star network has expanded into regional language channels and produces close to 17,000 hours of content each year in eight languages. The route it has taken to get there: acquisition of the South India-based Maa network, Asianet and via launch of channels such as the Bengali-language Star Jalsa.

    A journalist with little entertainment content creation experience when he was appointed, Shankar has steered Star into creating TV content that has been path breaking over the past 10 years, dealing with social issues, apart from helping position it as a network that produces classy shows but with a social purpose. So much so that Star India shows command an advertising premium even if the channel is not topping viewership ratings. Even on the affiliate revenues front, Shankar has played hardball.

    But one of the boldest moves taken by Star under him—some critics may choose to describe it as foolhardy—was to take on broadcast and telecom regulator TRAI late 2016 when Star India and its affiliate Vijay TV challenged in court the regulator’s jurisdiction over matters relating to copyrights, which effectively has stalled implementation of a new tariff and inter-connect regime announced by TRAI in October 2016. The case is still pending a final verdict in Madras High Court till the time of writing this piece.

    Amongst the early movers in the OTT space, Shankar has made Star invest big in customer acquisition and pushed its digital platform Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan to go out and not only acquire new business, but also devise a distribution strategy that could be sliced and diced as per needs of the geographical markets. So, Hotstar’s distribution and subscription strategy for the US and Canada market, heavily subscription revenue-led, could be quite different from that pushed in India, where making available content practically free to subscriber initially is aimed at hooking the viewer before he’s seduced to the pay model.

    Though Shankar is not known to be a great fan of gambling—even during Diwali when in India playing cards with cash is considered auspicious or for good `shagun’—he gambled big on the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) global rights for five years. Star not only played smart, outbidding incumbent rights holder SPN India and some global digital players sniffing at commercially viable Indian cricket rights, but also raised the bar to clinch the hand with a bet of $ 2.55 billion. Raising the stakes flattened competition.

    Under Shankar, Star has also ploughed huge investments into creating and acquiring sports properties such as the Pro Kabaddi League, the BCCI national cricket domestic rights, the domestic soccer league ISL in collaboration with Reliance Industries, table tennis, badminton, and many others sports.

    The recent promotion of Shankar means he has won the confidence of the Murdochs and the boards of News Corp and 21CF to replicate in Asia what he has done in India, long referred to as a jewel in the crown of the Murdoch media empire. While 21CF has done well in markets such as Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea, scale has been something that’s been missing. Shankar is expected now start building that.

    By promoting him to head Asia, 21 CF has also ensured that if a deal with Disney does happen (media reports emanating from all parts of globe say the approx USD 60 billion deal could happen sooner rather than later), it will be—very well could be—Shankar who will be scripting the new Asian story. Currently, Disney has two Asian heads: one for south east and south Asia and the other for north Asia. With him being designated as the boss, the reporting lines too could change with Mahesh Samat reporting to Shankar.

    How has Shankar managed this rags-to-riches story in the cut-throat corporate world of global media? Shankar himself gives a hint. Casually leaning against the main exit to the executive floor at level 37 in the South Parel office of Star, housing the leadership team, while escorting out a couple of senior editors of Indiantelevision.com after an interview in September, he was asked what made him tick. The recorder was off and the interview had ended, but what he said was revealing.

    According to Shankar, though he considers he has miles yet to travel (wherein he’d continue reading thought-provoking books like Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind), his satisfaction comes from the fact that he has managed to assemble a string of high-calibre professionals as heads of various Star businesses who at least specialise in or know better one thing extra about the business than the chief. “This gives me great satisfaction as I know the business is in safe hands,” he said with a poker face.

    In the end, one of his mentors, Siddhartha Ray (Delhiwallahs say he’s one of the few friend-philosopher-guides of Shankar), who also happens to be the first GM of Star TV in India in the early 1990s, aptly summed up the X factor: “What makes Uday so successful? He’s a quick learner, good man-manager and an adept environment manager.”

    At Indiantelevision.com, we would wish Uday Shankar more wind beneath his wings so that he can soar higher.

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