| MUMBAI:
The big dads of business are set to make the largest investment in a greenfield
media project. Mukesh Ambani, private equity fund Temasek Holdings and a clutch
of individual investors are arming former Star India CEO Peter Mukerjea with an
investment outlay of $300 million to launch a slew of 8-10 TV channels. First to kick off would
be a Hindi general entertainment and an English news channel. The overall plan
is to have a broad bouquet including a reality, a music and regional general entertainment
channels, a source in the industry says. There will also be a language news channel
other than English, he adds. No south language foray is being planned.
Nor will there be a movie channel. The general entertainment channel will have
movie content. There would be no foreign
strategic equity partner for the news channel venture. Earlier Ambani had asked
Ernst & Young to conduct a feasibility study on entering the news business.
There were news reports that he was in talks with BBC for launching a news channel.
Mukerjea and the other senior media professionals would share a minority
stake in the company. | 
