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Hindi key to Indian success: Star TV

A year after converting its flagship Indian channel from English to Hindi, Rupert Murdoch's Star TV is for the first time close to breaking even in one of its fastest growing markets.

The Indian arm, which started operations almost a decade ago, accounts for more than half of Asian satellite broadcaster Star TV's revenue.

In May, media mogul Murdoch's News Corp reported that strong revenue from its Star Plus channel in India had helped Star TV stem losses.

Star Plus now has 38 of the top 50 programmes on Indian television according to independent ratings, a giant leap from the mere two it had a year ago.

"Our goal is to try and get that (figure) to about 45-46 in the next 12 months," Peter Mukerjea, Star India's chief executive officer told Reuters.

TURNING POINT

Converting Star Plus into a fully Hindi channel and taking on former partner Zee Telefilms, whose network has fallen to second place, has been a turning point for Star.

Although only about 30 per cent of Indians speak Hindi as a mother tongue, at least double that proportion understands the langauge.

Now a year after Star Plus switched to Hindi, sources say Star India is likely to report more than 50 per cent growth in revenue. It is likely to post revenues of Rs 4-5 billion ($85 million-$106 million) for the year ended June.

Star's strategy was simple.

It introduced a gameshow modelled on the hit British series "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", hosted by Indian movie icon Amitabh Bachchan.

It was an instant success.

Star then got other shows, mainly family sagas, to piggyback on the gameshow.

The channel now leads in viewership, after being a distant third last year behind Zee Network and Sony Entertainment, whose gameshow clones have failed to woo large audiences.

FUTURE PLANS

Regional language programming is Star India's next thrust area.

Star hopes to create content for existing regional language channels and help in sales and marketing, while building its own business on the back of their growth, Mukerjea said.

"I think regional languages is an interesting area that we need to look at," Mukerjea said. "Certain regional languages do have potential and we would like to explore that territory one day," he said.

India has 70 million television owning homes, 30 million of which have cable connections, and has seen regional language channels mushroom over the past two years.

There is a huge potential for programming in India's 16 regional languages, and at least one of these is spoken as a mother tongue by about 60 per cent of the country's one-billion citizens.

Radio is another market Star is betting on. India's first private radio station, backed by content from Star India went on the air this week.

Star will supply content and support sales for Music Broadcast Private Ltd, a firm backed by expatriate Indian tycoon PK Mittal and associates.

"It's a change of mindset," Mukherjea said. "The (radio) market does not exist. We have to go out and make the market."

The start of many private radio stations will boost radio's share to 4-5 per cent in India's total advertising pie within two to three years from the current one per cent share, he said.

"I think the radio business, once you get it going (apart from the licence fees) can be a fairly high margin business, but it will take some time."

Mukerjea says the broadcaster, which focused on Star Plus last year, will also throw its marketing weight behind the entire Star bouquet, including six other channels that provide a mix of entertainment, news and music.

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