The Rupert Murdoch firm has invested over $1 bn in the Internet segment globally, but India as an investment destination is still not in radar
NEW DELHI: News Corp and its subsidiaries have remained focused on acquisitions in the internet space for the past few months, but India is still way off its map.
Michelle Guthrie, CEO of Star (a 100% subsidiary of News Corp) told DNA on Tuesday that the Group is not looking at immediate investments in Internet properties in India.
"India is at a different stage of development. The level of PC penetration is quite low in the country," Guthrie said, on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit.
"It is a matter of time," she said. Guthrie was responding to a query on whether Star would make Internet investments in India, in line with News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch's strategy.
Rupert Murdoch had recently made a statement indicating that the future of newspapers is gloomy due to the growth of Internet.
Also, during the past few months, News Corp and its subsidiaries made huge investments, of over $1 billion, in acquiring Internet assets, beginning with purchase of myspace.com parent company Intermix.
News Corp subsidiary Fox Media Interactive is also understood to have bought US online and magazine sports publisher Scout Media and online video gaming company IGN Entertainment, according to media reports.
BskyB, satellite broadcaster in the UK in which News Corp is the largest shareholder, also bought a broadband company Easynet recently, reports said.
In the face of criticism that News Corp is indulging in "panic buying", Murdoch has been quoted as saying that internet acquisitions are a part of "strategic spending".
Star, which has interests in cable television, direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting and FM radio in India, is planning to pick up up to 20 per cent stake in a radio company in the second round of FM privatisation that was kicked off recently.
Star India CEO Peter Mukherjea confirmed that the company would go for a stake in radio, but did not divulge the name of Star's Indian partner. In the first round of privatisation, Star was the content and marketing partner for Music Broadcast Pvt Ltd (MBPL), the licence for which was with the Ispat group.
Star has not ruled out picking up a stake in MBPL, but it may explore other options too.
While earlier, FDI was not permitted in FM radio, now up to 20% FDI has been allowed.
On Star's DTH venture, along with the Tatas, Mukherjea said, uplinking and frequency allocation permissions have been stuck with the government (department of telecommunications) for the past four to five months.
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