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No more investment in IT, says Murdoch

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, July 13

MR James Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of the Hong Kong-based Star Group Ltd, on Friday ruled out any further investments in the IT and broadcasting sectors although he was happy with the Indian operations of Star and positive about the Indian technology sec tor.

The Star chief, along with Star India CEO, Mr Peter Mukherjea, and other senior officials of the group met the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister, Ms Sushma Swaraj. According to sources, issues relating to direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting and F M radio were discussed with the Minister. Mr Murdoch, however, did not divulge details and told newspersons that the meeting with the Minister was a private one.

``This is just a courtesy call and I wanted to catch up with her (Ms Swaraj) since she is responsible for all the regulatory and monitoring activity in the I&B sector.''

On the group's plans on DTH in India, Mr Murdoch said he had not made up his mind and that they were still looking at the guidelines. The architecture of the set-top box (Star wants open architecture of set-top boxes), Mr Murdoch said, was not a concern.

Asked if he had discussed the issue of raising the sectoral cap from the current 20 per cent for direct-to-home broadcasting companies, he said: ``It is inappropriate for me to comment on that.''

He said the trip to India was a periodical one and as such, had no specific agenda. He described the visit as ``routine''.

On Star TV's operations and performance here, Mr Murdoch said, ``The Indian operations are different and the company has no immediate expansion plans to introduce new channels into the country.''

He also said there would be no further investments in the IT sector. Star India has already shelved its plans to launch portals, and its other IT initiatives.

On whether Star would distribute NDTV's proposed infotainment channel, NDTV World, as part of its bouquet, Mr Murdoch said there ``were no such plans''.

There also were no plans of coming up with an initial public offer (IPO) in the near future, he said.

Regarding recent reports of NewsCorp's plans to acquire Hughes Group's interactive TV business DirecTV, Mr Murdoch merely said, ``the talks are on''.