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WHY INDIA NEEDS MURDOCH
In the first part of a two-part
series on Murdoch, it would be useful to examine why India
needs Murdoch. Next week's column will look at reasons why
India should shut and bolt the door on him.
India needs Murdoch for several reasons.
The Ozzie gent is a risk-taker and an innovator and Indian
media could do with a dose of entrepreneuralism. Murdoch's
News Corp is probably the only top global media group which
has an individual spearheading its multinational expansion
urges. The top Indian media groups have done little to bring
about shifts in terms of journalistic or business paradigms.
They have been too complacent.
It was a toothpaste tube manufacturer Subhash Chandra who
created a Zee TV, not a Times of India nor an Indian Express
nor a Hindustan Times. Chandra worked his way into small
pockets of audiences the world over. But Chandra is no Murdoch
and cannot leverage his media empire globally to the level
that his partner has.
It was an industrialist Rajan Raheja who launched an Outlook
which shook the ever-so-steady India Today so much that
Aroon Purie was forced to convert the fortnightly into a
weekly. Raheja looks set to repeat that act in the business
magazines segment when he launches Business Outlook.
Murdoch today is promising to bring to India a technology
on par with the best in the world by launching ISkyB, a
direct to home television service. He has no altruistic
intentions; he wants to make money out of India -- but not
now, probably five to 10 years down the line. How many Indian
industrialists are willing to stretch their business plans
so far? The government is not allowing him because it fears
him. As do sloppy and fearful Indian media barons who work
as a cartel.
He wants to launch a 24 hour news channel, Sky News. Along
with DD's proposed news channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News will
offer a balanced fare to viewers. DD is too biased in its
approach. CNN is good but it is too American, while the
BBC is too British. Sky News, hopefully, will fill the gap
with coverage and editorial control in the hands of Indians.
Will it make money? Who knows? But it will improve Star
TV's clout with politicians.
By just Indianising Star Plus he has forced other TV companies
to relook at their programming too. Another competitor has
made for nuisance value for the Zee TVs, Sony TVs and Home
TVs operating in India.
Giving Murdoch free rein in the media business will help
break the monopolistic grip that a handful of groups have
on the print media. It will wake them from their somnolence.
The Cabinet Resolution of the fifties, which has so far
shut the gates on foreign equity in print media, has given
existing media mughals enough time to build their fiefdoms.
Not one of the Indian newspaper barons has managed to make
a mark with his publications overseas. Not one of them has
had the vision to acquire newspapers or stations internationally.
You will say that they don't have enough money. Neither
did Murdoch when he started out; he was just a small Ozzie
newspaper owner. He borrowed from banks, found backers and
built up his empire from almost scratch.
In many ways Murdoch is like Dhirubhai Ambani, only on a
larger global scale. While Ambani's focus is on national
markets, Murdoch knows no national boundaries. Because he
is a visionary and corporate builder, he sparks off a host
of related activities, generating employment in the process.
(He also sacks the flotsam and jetsam, but that's needed
to have a successful business.) Already, 200 people have
settled down to jobs with Star TV in the past year.That
too for a DTH television project which has been grounded.
Wages however continue to be paid to them.
Murdoch also changes journalism wherever he goes. Dogged
investigation is the forte of his tabloids. Indian press
has become consistently mediocre over the past few years.
Most investigations are politically or business-motivated.
Maybe Murdoch could inject fresh life into the Indian press.
Murdoch believes that newspapers should entertain, not educate.
Entertainment sells, hence newspapers that entertain sell.
He caters to the lowest denominator. Indian press has not
entertained, it has educated. It could do with a dose of
entertainment.
Murdoch's News Corp also has the expertise of running television
and print media companies. His Fox network in the US made
a mark for itself in a highly competitive market. News Corp
has programming skills which a very nascent market could
do with.
He is next to none in the way he manages to eke out productivity
from employees. No one runs a tighter shift than him. A
media firm is an organism that's constantly changing shape
like an amoeba. And Murdoch's News Corp has the expertise
to keep it under control. Bloated inefficient Indian print
media companies and badly run-TV production houses and companies
could do with some of that expertise.
Article appeared
in a local newspaper in late 1997
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