'स्टार इंडिया' की तरफ से हिंदी न्यूज चैनल ला&#

Last year, the most talked news of the media industry was the split between ABP and STAR India. The joint venture of 74:26 of ABP and STAR India respectively ended in April 2012. STAR India is now all set to launch a new Hindi news channel to capture the Hindi market, share industry sources. The development is in its preliminary stage. Recruitment and test runs are in process now. Industry bigwigs are expected to join the new channel. The name of the channel is not known yet. There is ambiguity on whether STAR India will form a joint venture with another brand for the initiative. A foreign entity can buy only up to 26 per cent stake as increase in FDI in media to 49 per cent is still under consideration. Meanwhile, challenges have grown in the market since the time ABP and STAR India split last year. Carriage fees, frequency of TAM ratings, net versus gross billings, subscription fees, 10+2 ad cap – these are some of the issues that the new channel will have to take head on once it enters the market.

STAR, on the other hand, has a strong bouquet of sports and entertainment channel brands, which have been genre leaders. This apart, the media group’s earlier experience of running Star News will come in handy while navigating the highly competitive Hindi news genre in the country.