Rupert Murdoch’s Asian giant Star T.V. is making giant strides in the South India by tying up with Rajeev Chandrashekhar’s Jupiter entertainment and acquiring a stake in Asianet.

With this joint venture, Star becomes a formidable rival to Southern giant, Sun T.V.

The new joint venture—STAR Jupiter entertainment—will hold majority interest in Asianet Communications, which currently broadcasts general entertainment channels (GECs) in Kannada (Suvarna), Telugu (Sitara) and Malayalam (Asianet, Asianet Plus). Vijay, the Tamil language GEC currently owned and operated by STAR, will now come under STAR Jupiter.
Uday Shankar, CEO, STAR India, said that with this, STAR had managed a significant pan-India presence. He said, “We are now present in every important market of the country. Markets like the South, and even Maharashtra, have a high rate of economic growth, and the businesses there will grow in an intensive manner. And we are working at strengthening our presence in these markets.”
Shankar is of the opinion that STAR is now in a position to make a “strong offering to all advertisers”. He said, “There is a layer of national coverage that could even be duplicated in the region. That is the opportunity we have and the exact benefit of that would really depend on how much we can build on our presence from here.”
STAR Jupiter is also expected to plough in additional investment to develop new entertainment assets in the southern markets. The joint venture is also likely to chalk out several areas of co-operation, including film co-production by Fox STAR Studios India and Indigo Movies, Jupiter Entertainment’s movie production arm.

“This joint venture will take us from being in three languages and markets with Asianet, Suvarna and Sitara to being in all four markets by bringing in Vijay TV into this basket. It will alter the market dynamics of the South Indian entertainment market in our favour. We will become the market leader in South Indian Entertainment Television over the next 12-24 months,” Jupiter Capital chairman Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in an internal letter to the management and employees.

“This is a game-changing partnership for STAR. By adding the South Indian channels to our extensive portfolio of Hindi and regional language channels, STAR takes a big step towards becoming a truly national broadcaster in India,” STAR CEO Paul Aiello said in a joint company statement.