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Nithya Subramanian

New Delhi , Nov. 13

INDIA is an important market for the Rupert Murdoch-promoted Star Group.

And the newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer, Ms Michelle Guthrie, is expected to touch down in Mumbai next week having taken over the reins recently from Mr James Murdoch, who has been appointed head of the Newscorp's DTH operation, BskyB in the UK.

Officials at Star India said Ms Guthrie would be in the country to meet with the top management team of the Indian operations and to understand the functioning of the company better. They were, however, not willing to give details of her visit or the people she is expected to meet.

While Mr James Murdoch's visit two months back was to finalise a partner, which ended in an alliance with Mr Aveek Sarkar's ABP Ltd, for its news channel, Star officials maintained that there is no such agenda involved in the new CEO's visit.

However, industry sources pointed out that the company's direct-to-home (DTH) project has not yet taken off. "The Star Group has yet to announce a partner, though the name of the Tatas has been doing the rounds for a while," they said.

"The Indian operations are crucial to Star TV," said officials, and that explains the recent visit of Mr Steve Askew, Executive Vice-President (TV Operations), Star Group. Mr Askew was in town to look into the content and programming aspect of the Star channels.

According to the first quarter results announced by parent company Newscorp earlier this month, Star, bolstered by a 20 per cent growth on revenues, delivered positive operating income for the first time in this traditionally soft quarter. Also, revenues gains were primarily driven by advertising and subscription at Star Plus, which on an average continues to deliver 48 out of 50 top programmes.

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