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SHORT
& SNAPPY: INTERVIEW
"WE DON'T MIND WHO REALLY RUNS THE DTH PLATFORM"
Star TV CEO Peter Mukherjea set
the cat amongst the pigeons when he made a surprise
appearance at the Zee TV organised TV World launch
press conference in Mumbai. He, suggested that not
too much should be read into his decision to attend.
"I was invited so I decided to come," he shrugged.
He probably was reciprocating Zee TV chairman's Subhash
Chandra's gesture when he dropped into the Gary Davey
farewell dinner organised by Star TV in Mumbai earlier
this month. Nevertheless, the two partners turned
rivals will have to maintain the relationship as they
are tied to each other at least for the next year
until Chandra fully pays back the amount he owes Star
for the purchase of its share of the Zee TV operation.
And after that by the equity investment that Star
TV has in Zee Telefilms.
Mukerjea, an advertising and marketing professional
has been with Star TV ever since it started up its
Indian operations.The Indian Cab&Sat Reporter's Aditya
Tole caught up with him at the TV World launch for
a short and snappy interview.
Excerpts:
Q. When are you planning to go
regional?
A. At the moment we have no such plans. We've
to get our own channels right before that. We are
focussing on that.
Q. What about the future?
A. No plans for Marathi, Punjabi, and Bengali
channels for at least one and a half to two years.
Q. In the long term?
A. What do you mean by long term?
Q. 3-4 Years?
A. Who has seen such a long period? I look
just a year down the line from each date.
Q. What about DTH? When do you
think it would come into force?
A. I think only Mr Jaitley might be knowing
about it. We really don't mind who runs the platform
but we'd like to be on it. Be it Zee TV or DD or even
Star TV. We are really open on this issue. We'd like
DTH to come into the country, and we are very clear
on that.
Q. What will the Indian cable TV
market look like in the near future?
A. I see only two bouquets, one Star TV and
the other Zee. Other channels like Sony, Discovery,
etc will have to decide whether they should go to
either Star or to Zee. It would be ethical for them
to start a new bouquet of their own...but it would
not be easy for them to sustain.
Q. How would the split from Siticable
affect Star TV?
A. I don't think it would affect us in any way.
Siticable is an insignificant part of the whole cable
industry. It comprises just around 10% of the overall
industry. At the most they would block our channels.
But in this case, consumers would protest.
Won't you protest if Star News or Star Movies or Star
World is blocked ??? The consumers would not blast
us. They would blast Siticable or the local operators.
Consider what would happen if ESPN/Star Sports is
blacked out?
And you cannot forget that the strength of the Star
TV network is our programming.
Q. What do you think of Set Max?
Do you see it as a competition?
A. No way can they be a competition. What
is "sports" in India? It's cricket. Set Max shows
little cricket. They show other local sports. They
bagged the rights to some tournament in Sri Lanka
and Singapore. Is that significant programming?
We've (ESPN/Star) bagged the cricket rights for the
next five years! So SET MAX cannot be a threat to
us.
On the other hand Sony Entertainment is emerging stronger
by the day.
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