Star is eyeing growth in Middle East, Pakistan and Africa. Which is why it has created the new post of country head for these three markets and appointed Sumantra Dutta, who has been in the News Corp family for 14 years, to take up this role from 1 July.
Dutta rejoins Star from News Outdoor India (News Corp‘s out-of-home subsidiary), where he served as the company‘s managing director.
Dutta was also involved in the FM radio start-up venture and successfully established Radio City as a strong brand with a revenue that fell just below market leader Radio Mirchi which had a seven-station presence compared with Star‘s four.
Prior to this, Dutta led Star India‘s advertising sales and marketing teams.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com, Dutta talks of his new role and the company‘s growth plans in the three markets that he will spearhead.
Excerpts: |
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By creating the new post of a country head for Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, has Star identified these three as high growth markets? |
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Will Star‘s effort include localising content for the Middle East market? |
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Even Zee network had to experiment with local content for further growth. Is the advertising revenue skewed heavily towards local content? |
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So will Star get into local content with local partners? |
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How challenging is the Middle East market to conquer? |
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Isn‘t the distribution scenario also a lot more different? |
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What is Star‘s strategy going to be in these three markets? |
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Don‘t you feel that you are being continuously marginalised into businesses that are relatively smaller in size than what you were earlier handling being part of Star India‘s core team in the broadcasting arena? |
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Since News Corp is globally getting out of the outdoor business, is the India part up for sale? |
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For somebody who has been associated with Star for such a long period, which are your most precious moments? |
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