STAR TV CHAIRMAN ON INDIA VISIT NEXT MONTH

Star TV Asia chairman Gareth Chang is scheduled to make his first-ever visit India on 7 or 8 March. His visit gains significance considering the fact that the current government has been showing signs of opening up direct-to-home television services two years after they had been banned in India. Chang is expected to have a look-see at Star TV's India operations and will also have meetings with senior government officials.

Star TV owner and global media baron Rupert Murdoch has made it clear that China and India are the two major growth areas that News Corp is focusing on. A couple of months ago, Murdoch went on a fence-mending visit to China. He probably would have liked to do the same for India too but for the fact that he is liable to be arrested should he land in the country. An arrest warrant is pending against him for quite some time. Chang, an Asian-American, however, faces no problems of that sort and will hence put forth his company's position to government on uplinking, program controls, modes of distribution, and direct-to-home television. Star TV chief Gary Davey had visited India a couple of weeks ago and he met up with information and broadcasting minister Pramod Mahajan to clarify any doubts the government may have had about DTH television services. Davey is believed to have assured Mahajan that all the channels carried on Star TV's DTH platform ISkyB will comply with Indian programming and advertising codes and that the service can be switched off if any channel doesn't comply with regulations.