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To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (2027)	11/2/2001 11:09:22 PM
From: ms.smartest.person	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2248

James Murdoch: Asia not ready for new media Asia is not ready for innovations that would blend television, interactive content and the Internet, Star Group chief executive James Murdoch said at the World Economic Forum's East Asian Economic Summit here, CNNfn reported. Even the basic television and cable markets leave a lot to be desired, Murdoch said, and need private-sector and government reform before they'll work. "In most Asian markets, before we get to all the new products, there's really a lot of nuts and bolts work within the industry and governments that needs to be done first," he said, according to the CNN report. Murdoch, second son of News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, heads Star, News Corp's Asian subsidiary. It operates television channels in 53 markets and is one of the broadest-reaching broadcasters in Asia, with 30 channels. Its Star Gold channel claims many of the top-rated shows in India, and its part-owned Phoenix Satellite Television joint venture is popular in China's cabl e television market. But when asked which markets were best-positioned to lead the way in pay-television and in offering advanced services like Interactive TV, Murdoch was hard-pushed to think of any. "I don't think that there are many markets at all that are ready for these developments. "What we lack in most markets in Asia is enough competition, and private ownership," Murdoch said. "If you have that private ownership, and you have the competition, you'll see investment and you'll see companies that are willing to take risks." China's cable-television infrastructure is still government-owned, Murdoch noted. But the Star chief found the ongoing discussions looking at creating new types of ownership structures "very encouraging." Murdoch said he was not concerned about last week's announcement that AOL Time Warner, parent of CNN, had won the first official license for an overseas TV company to broadcast a channel in China. "We think there's a lot of room for competitors, and for exciting new developments," CNN reported him as saying. ww5.e-finet.com