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The Hong Kong-based STAR group had initially confined its Indian operations to English and Hindi. It stepped into Tamil in 2001 by acquiring controlling interest in Vijay TV. In 2005, it set up STAR Ananda, a Bengali news channel, in association with the Ananda Bazar Patrika newspaper group. A few weeks ago, it launched STAR Jalsha, an entertainment channel in Bengali.
Three months ago the STAR group began talks with the owners of Asianet, which has changed hands thrice in the 15 years of its existence. The Asianet channel company and a cable company bearing the same name were promoted by Sashi Kumar, former head of Press Trust of India's TV division, with seed capital provided by his uncle, Reji Menon, a Moscow-based businessman. When the companies faced a financial crunch, the real estate firm of Rahejas helped, and it was given 50 per cent stake in the cable operations.
As business prospered, the Rahejas wanted a stake in the channel operations too. While Sashi Kumar, who held half the shares, resisted their overtures, Reji Menon, who held the remaining half, struck a deal with them. Under the deal, the Rahejas got full control over the cable company. Menon used the consideration they paid to provide his nephew a golden handshake.
Sashi Kumar's exit created a sense of loss in the state CPI-M leadership, which had viewed Asianet as a friendly channel. It promoted a company to set up an alternative channel. Today the party-promoted Kairali group and Asianet have three channels each - a general entertainment channel, a news channel and a youth channel.
An attempt by Subhash Chandra's Zee group to acquire Asianet from Menon fell through apparently because the severance agreement with the cable company prohibits the channel's takeover by a company with interest in cable operations.
Two years ago Menon pulled out of Asianet turning over control to Rajiv Chandrasekhar, a Bangalore-based businessman of Kerala origin, who is a Rajya Sabha member and currently president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
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