ITV

Tag: Peter Chernin

  • Vijay Singh to be next Star India COO; Peter Chernin flying in

    Vijay Singh to be next Star India COO; Peter Chernin flying in

    MUMBAI: After Star CEO Paul Aiello, it is News Corp president and COO Peter Chernin, Rupert Murdoch’s right hand man, who will be coming to these shores to shore up the morale of the Indian team. Chernin is flying in late on Thursday and will be in Mumbai over the following three days meeting the troops as it were.

    And in a related development, Indiantelevision.com learns that Vijay Singh, former CEO of Sony Music and currently Tata group company Tetley Tea’s managing director, developing markets, has been appointed as Star India COO.

    The main agenda of Chernin’s visit would appear to be to reinforce India’s importance, as well as to make clear how the new executive structure in Hong Kong and India (of which Singh is a key element) will mesh with News Corp’s overall growth plans.

    Singh, who will complete serving out his notice at Tetley by the month-end, is not taking up his new assignment immediately however. Indications are that he will join Star in the latter half of March. Singh will reportedly be taking up his new position just ahead of the departure of Star Entertainment India CEO Sameer Nair, whose last working day as head of India’s lead broadcaster is 26 March.

    Star officials were unavailable for comment on the issue of Singh’s appointment.

    As regards the announcement of a CEO, it will be made within the next one to two months is all that Indiantelevision.com had been able to garner from industry sources at the time of filing this report.

    With Singh’s arrival as COO, and with Aiello holding additional charge as Star India CEO, the jewel in News Corp’s Asian crown will have gone back to the structure it had before March of 2006 when Nair was COO and Peter Mukerjea was CEO. Mukerjea exited Star as of 1 February.

  • Star revenues to grow 15 % this fiscal: MPA

    Star revenues to grow 15 % this fiscal: MPA

    MUMBAI: The Star Group is expected to post a 15 per cent year on year revenue growth at $624 million for FY June 2007 with operating profit margins at 24.3 per cent or $151 million, according estimates by Hong Kong-based research firm Media Partners Asia (MPA).

    Star’s September quarter was relatively soft (historically soft for the broadcaster in Asia) with revenue up a modest 6 per cent Y/Y to $140 million (MPA estimate) and operating income up 8 per cent to $13 million.

    While subscription revenue grew by 6 per cent Y/Y, programming costs declined over the quarter. “This leverage, however, was offset by lower ad revenue at flagship STAR Plus in India, where the decrease in advertising reflected last year’s high base comparison when revenue grew 22 per cent Y/Y due to the successful broadcast of Kaun Banega Crorepati 2,” the MPA report said. Despite maintaining leadership position, Star’s ratings have softened with Zee TV posing a strong threat.

    Tata Sky, News Corp.’s 20:80 direct-to-home (DTH) joint venture with the Tatas, has acquired around 180,000 subscribers till October-end, after having launched its services in August. The company says it is on track to add a net one million subscribers per annum.

    “The early results have been encouraging,” the report quoted News Corp chief operating officer and president Peter Chernin as having said. “Any additions are sort of immediate additional subsribers for channels and the good news is that they are at least 100 per cent reporting, which is a nice positive phenomenon in India.”

    News Corp, parent company of Star, had a sluggish September quarter with operating income at $851 million, down 6 per cent Y/Y, with a strong performance at its cable network and newspaper businesses offset by softness at its TV, movie and digital satellite units. It saw also higher than expected costs at the company’s online properties. The company reported earnings of $0.27 per share, benefiting from a $261 million gain after the sale of Sky Brasil and $136 million from the sale of its 19.9 per cent stake in Chinese commercial broadcaster Phoenix Satellite TV, in which News Corp still holds a 17.6 per cent interest.

    The company, however, expects a strong full year in FY 07 with robust growth forecast for Star Group and aggressiv expansion of MySpace into multiple Asian markets, the MPA report said.

  • News Corp looking to do content deals in the mobile space

    News Corp looking to do content deals in the mobile space

    MUMBAI: US media conglomerate is targetting the mobile space in a big way. A few days ago it hatched an alliance with VeriSign to form a global mobile entertainmet firm.

    The new company will merge a technologically advanced platform with mobile content production and delivery capabilities and will serve 30 territories with a potential reach of more than a billion mobile subscribers. News Corp will fork out $188 million for VeriSign’s subsidiary Jamba.

    Now News Corp is looking at opportunities to partner with key players in the mobile space to distribute content. Media reports quote News Corp COO Peter Chernin who delivered the opening keynote speech for day two of the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2006.

    He says that as of now only four per cent of the 219 million mobile subscribers in the US watch mobile TV on their handsets. However if it rises to even 20 per cent and each viewer spends $10 a month on mobile video, mobile TV would generate nearly $5 billion in revenue. $10 to put things in perspective is a little less than the price of a movie ticket in some theatres in the US.

    If makers and sellers of ringtones could increase their client base by just five per cent in a year, there would be an additional revenue of $1 billion.

    He went on to state that operators and handset makers need to make sure content can be found more easily. He emphasised the need for developing easy-to-use search methods and also simpler business models, so that consumers know how to buy mobile content. Finding mobile entertainment on cell phones is very difficult right now, he said.

    Chernin says that the deal with VeriSign is a sign that News Corp practices what it preaches. News Corp will launch a subscription-based mobile content service from The Simpsons and hopes to build a Jamba-powered engine to power an application which can be downloaded for its mobile franchise, MySpace.