When Star India paid the Board of Control for Cricket in India $770M last year for int'l cricket media rights for domesitc matches, it showed that it was becoming "unusually aggressive in chasing the sports business," according to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar of the BUSINESS STANDARD. The deal covered 96 matches between '12 and '18. Around the same time, its parent, News Corporation, "bought out ESPN's share in a pan-Asian joint venture ESPN-Star Sports" (now Fox Star Sports Asia) for $220M. Once the buyout is operational, Star India "will own the rights" to almost all Indian cricket in addition to EPL, F1 and Wimbledon, among others. One part of it is "a larger News Corporation design." Sports "has been a focus area" ever since Deputy Chair Chase Carey took over after serving as president and COO of Rupert Murdoch's $33.7B media empire in '09. The idea is "to take on" ESPN's "30-year-old hegemony over the market" in the U.S. News Corp. believes that sports can be the "locomotive" to get better revenues from its dominating pay TV platforms. That "is the thinking" in India, too. However, more than 90% of the Rs 4,000 crore ($741M) that TV makes on sports, "goes to cricket." Dish TV CEO R.C. Venkateish said, "India is not a sports market, India is a cricket market." GroupM National Dir Vinit Karnik said, "We follow Indian cricket only, in India, and when India is winning." The second catch: According to analysis by Media Partners Asia, while ESPN "had a fat topline" at Rs 1,875 crore in '12, "it was not profitable." The merger and its entry into sports "could pull down Star's healthy" 30% operating margins (BUSINESS STANDARD, 4/18).
