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News Corp can raise Tata Sky stake to 50%; cross-media a bottleneck
MUMBAI: Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp has the option of increasing its shareholding in direct-to-home (DTH) services provider Tata Sky to 50 per cent from the current effective stake of 29.8 per cent. Tata group holding firm Tata Sons holds a majority stake in Tata Sky.
News Corp has a shareholder agreement which gives it the option to become an equal partner. Tata Sons owns 60 per cent stake in the company while the remaining 10 per cent is with Singapore-based private equity firm Temasek.
News Corp, however, will not be able to benefit from the recent hike in the FDI cap to 74 per cent in the broadcast-carriage services sector. The company, which runs a broadcasting business in India through its subsidiary Star, is handicapped by a cross-media regulation.
According to Indian government regulations, any entity having more than 20 per cent equity participation in a broadcasting company cannot have more than 20 per cent equity in a distributor (MSO/Cable, DTH, HITS, Mobile TV) and vice- versa.
“We have the option to become an equal joint venture partner in Tata Sky. But there is a cross-media regulation in India,” Shankar tells Indiantelevision.com.
Is this regulation unfair? “Yes, it is. The government has mandated digitisation in the country (by 31 December 2014) and there will be a huge funding requirement that will not be available locally. The recent decision to up the ceiling on foreign direct investment to 74 per cent is a positive step. But for global strategic investors to come in, it is necessary to do away with cross-media restrictions. And if strategic investors don‘t come in, then financial investors will not find it that attractive. In any case, the cross-media restriction has been violated by at least three players having broadcast interests. It has only discouraged clean, legitimate players,” says Shankar.
In 2010, Star India had applied for FIPB (foreign investment promotion board) clearance to buy a 49 per cent stake in Tata Group‘s investment firm TS Investments, which would hold a 20 per cent stake in Tata Sky for Rs 3.24 billion.
Effectively, this gives Star an additional 9.8 per cent stake in Tata Sky, increasing News Corp‘s total holding in the DTH company to 29.8 per cent.
Star‘s FIPB application followed the government‘s amendment in 2009 to the FDI policy that stated that investment through companies owned and controlled by Indians would not count as foreign investments.
Tata Sky, which commenced operations in 2006, is one of the leading DTH companies in India and is ahead of the others in terms of ARPUs (average revenue per user). The profitability of the sector is affected by low ARPUs. Dish TV, India‘s largest DTH company by subscribers, ended fiscal-first quarter with an average ARPU of Rs 156 while Airtel digital TV‘s was at Rs 166.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
