IS SKY THE LIMIT?

If any single person is to be named as one responsible for the proliferation of satellite channels across transnational boundaries, the unanimous response worldwide would be that of Rupert Murdoch. 

The pace at which Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has expanded globally has left competitors and observers breathless. He is in a position to not only influence governments but also make them or bring about their downfall. He is referred to by the industry as an international citizen. His loyalty to his organisational interests overrides all other factors. He commands awe among the mighty and powerful, be they politicians, rich industrialists or powerful bankers. 

Murdoch capitalised on the possibilities of rich returns from the electronic media. The super hero has really worked hard in the last four decades to build up an empire that is the envy of many. 

Murdoch in Australia

For a combination of reasons, many out of his control, Murdoch has been slow to develop his brace new world of entertainment in the country where he began his compulsive empire building 44 years ago. Worldwide, film and television production and distribution now make up 51 per cent of News Corporation revenues. His BSkyB dominates pay-TV in Britain and the Fox Network just won the ratings with the American Baseball World Series in the US. 

But in Australia, it must be said, News is still about news and the major newspapers it publishes in every capital city. 

Under cross media rules where a proprietor cannot be both Queen of the Screen and Prince of Print in any one market, Murdoch’s broadcast television interests are limited to a 15 per cent shareholding in Channel Seven, one of three national commercial television stations. 

Early development of pay-TV via coaxial cable was prevented by the country’s small population spread across its vast continent. Not until the advent of the digital era and the ability to deliver through fibre optic cable both telephony and pay-TV, as well as a potential host of broadband services, has pay-TV delivery become economically feasible there. Less than a year after its launch, Foxtel connected 100,000 homes. Its main competitor, Optus Vision, has matched that, placing the two in a dead heat. 

Foxtel has to be one of Murdoch’s cushiest deals. Telstra lays the cable, while Murdoch provides the content. Nowhere else in the world is a government-owend telecom company in partnership with an entertainment company of a pay-TV service. 

In Europe

His Sky channel over took the competing consortium called British Satellite Broadcasting and forced a merger to form BSkyB under Murdoch’s control and management. it was the post merger financial success of B Sky B that encouraged Murdoch to take over a 63.6% stake in Star TV from the Li family in 1993. A year and a half later, he bought out the residual 36.4% too. 

In Asia

Murdoch’s experience in Asia was that the Asian television viewers had a marked preference for locally produced programmes. To satisfy their urge for local flavour, he entered into accords with the Zee TV in India, Indovision in Indonesia, Viva in The Philippines, Astro in Malaysia and Softbank in Japan. 

Star TV has opened regional offices in Jakarta, Singapore, Taipei and Mumbai. These could be instrumental in building up regional entities so that regional losses can be camouflaged by insulating each from the debts of mother operations in Hong Kong. 

China

Murdoch’s efforts to enter China in light of the transfer of Hong Kong to China later this year have not been very successful. With restrictions on Private Satellite dishes in China, he has been unable to gain a foothold there. To placate the Chinese government he even replaced one of the Star TV channels there with the Phoenix Television. 

With much of his activities now focused in India, The Philippines and Indonesia, Murdoch is playing the waiting game in China, hoping for a turnaround from the present cold shoulder treatment that the Chinese Government in giving him. 

Japan

As the initial shock wave of Rupert Murdoch’s blitz in June to purchase 21 per cent stake of TV Asahi subsides, Japanese terrestrial networks, with the exception of NHK, have reassessed their views on his plans to launch a 100 + channel digital platform into the country, called J Sky B. Murdoch’s News Corporation had earlier planned to work with Hughes Communications DirecTV in Japan, using Mitsubishi’s superbird satellite, but the talks with Hughes fell through, as Murdoch picked Soft Bank’s Masayoshi Son as his JSkyB partner. However, both private and public sectors now seem to be accepting Murdoch’s JSkyB plan favourably, particularly after he openly denied the rumour that he was going to buy other networks as well as TV Asahi. 

Others In Asia

While ThaiSky and UTV have been bringing Star TV’s signals to Thai homes since its launch, the more tightly controlled tiger economies of Singapore and Malaysia tended to cite News Corp and Murdoch personally as all that was bad about “cultural imperialism”. 

It was a surprise to some, when, in 1995, government-controlled Singapore Cable Vision included four Star TV channels in its launch line up. The only problematic area being Star Movies, which did not conform to the Singapore Board of Film Censors code. Behind the scene lobbying by Star has failed to overturn this situation. 

Better came in Malaysia, where Star TV was one of the first broadcasters to secure carnage on the government-backed Astro service launched by Measat in October. 

As Asia’s third largest market, with around 180 million inhabitants, Indonesia could become one of Murdoch’s most lucrative markets worldwide |

India

In India, after having acquired a major stake in Zee TV’s holding company Asia Today Limited (49.9%), El TV (50%), Zee Cinema (50%), Siti Cable (50%), UTV (51%), C-Net (51%) and News Television India Limited (100%), he is looking towards other powerful channels. News Corporation has already received sanction to set up another wholly owned subsidiary INDCO that will source, produce, market and export Indian software. 

Nobody is under any illusions about the challenges ahead for the 40-channel India Sky Broadcasting (Sky TV) digital service, which News Corp started demonstrating at the end of March. 

In spite of having access to the top Indian leadership and having met the then Prime Minister Mr. H.D.Devegowda in June last, Murdoch has been unable to get the go-ahead from Indian regulators for his service and it’s still unclear how he is going to get around various licensing proposals, including draft regulations which could prohibit companies from holding more than one of the seven television licensing categories. 

Star TV and Sky TV have been ultra cautious about not offending the powers that be in Indian broadcasting circles, and stress that the service will not go ahead without official sanction. 

But local sources say Sky TV will launch a’ direct-to-operators’ service on C-band to cable operators to get around the DTH licensing proposals in the meantime. 

The question everyone is asking is: how is Sky TV going to get Rs 500 (US$14) a month, in addition to Rs 10,000 (US $ 285) for the decoder and Rs.1,500 (US $ 42) for the dish ? On top of this Sky will be asking Rs5,000 (US $ 140) for the licence fee, and Rs 1,250 (US $35) for tax. The average Indian household pays-and reluctantly at that-Rs150 ((US $ 4.50) a month for cable TV at the moment, although some systems offer cable packages for as low as Rs 75 (US $ 2.25) a month. A common response runs through comment on the service; What’s to stop householders buying the service and wiring up their neighbours ? What indeed? 

Star TV’s seven Ku-Band transponders on PAS-4 will be used for the full commercial DTH service. Despite some negative industry opinion about the strength of PAS-4 signals, PanAmSat claims that the satellite’s ability to provide high-quality, reliable DTH transmissions to India in all weather conditions has been proven in extensive tests conducted in 1996. PAS-4 is also used for DTH services in South Africa and the Middle East. 

As experts say there is a market for everything in India. And even if Sky TV gets just one per cent of the population, they will still have almost ten million people watching. 

Murdoch’s approach towards vertical integration is interesting. He seems to be following the ancient adage of “Money talks”. With his massive money power, he has been- able to purchase media markets and ultra modern technologies. His financial strength enables him to quote the best rates in any bid and outsmart any corporate organisation. It is to be noted that the rapid advancements in Broadband wireless technology, will completely overtake the existing technology in the field of cable television in the near future in the race for bandwidth. 

The inherent disadvantages technology are on their way out. Earlier, wireless technology was crippled with limited bandwidth and limited transmission. 

Firstly today Satellites can beam down digital quality signals from one headend in the sky, to any number of countries. 

Secondly, digital compression enables beaming 500+ channels (even advanced services like Video on Demand, Internet & Multimedia) without any problems. 

Thirdly the globalisation of media has rendered regional legislation helpless in controlling these advancements. Sooner or later, the countries will be forced to accept the reality of the rapid advancements in media and people like Murdoch will always be there to exploit.

Source: http://cablequest.org/articles/broadcast-technology/item/1302-is-sky-the-limit?.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/articles/broadcast-technology/item/1302-is-sky-the-limit?.html