News - business
10 June 2005

India's media giants to grow at brisk pace
Hindustan Times
(c) 2005 The Hindustan Times Ltd

NEW DELHI, India, June 10 -- Asia media earnings are likely to remain robust over the next one year and this holds true for the top three television broadcasters in India - Star India, Sony Entertainment Television and Zee Telefilms, according to a recent study released by Hong Kong-based Media Partners Asia.

According to the study, Star India will drive the growth for Rupert Murdoch's Star Group revenues in the region. It is projected that Star will see a 60 per cent earnings growth ahead of new programmes and distribution platforms in India.

MPA forecasts indicate that the Star Group's EBITDA could reach $109 million for its FY 2005 (year ending June 30 2005) with turnover growing 16 per cent year-on-year to $475 million. News Corp's Q3 FY 2005 (March 2005 quarter) results underlined the strength of its subsidiary Star Group. The company saw a topline growth of 10 per cent for the quarter as turnover exceeded $110 million.

The turnover for Star group was driven by advertising and subscriptions gains, both largely attributable to the continued leadership of Star Plus in India and contributions from new channels in India including STAR One, a hindi-language general entertainment channel.

"Competition in the Hindi-language general entertainment channel space further intensified during the March 2005 quarter. While STAR continued to retain a clear lead in the market, its share dropped below 40 per cent for the first time in over a year," says the report.

MPA estimates that the market for DTH services, which will now include three pay TV platforms and one free-to-air platform-DD Direct, could grow to 7.2 million subscribers by 2010 with revenues of around $400 m per annum.

Star's main rivals in the market - Zee and Sony - are also expected to grow significantly. Zee's 20 per cent-owned Dish TV is aiming to clock one million subscribers by March 2006 and is likely to face stiff competition from the Star JV.

For the same period, turnover for Sony Entertainment Television is expected to grow by 25 per cent year-on-year to $245 million (fuelled by advertising growth and solid distribution gains) while EBITDA could reach $74 million (12 per cent year-on-year growth), a 30 per cent margin.

The Hindustan Times is provided through HT Syndication, New Delhi.