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If Rupert Murdoch doesn't like Tol Mol Ke Bol, can he ring up Zee TV and ask them to dump it? No, he can't, if Subhash Chandra, chairman of Zee Telefilms Limited (ZTL), is to be believed.
It's surprising that a man who controls assets worth $26 billion and who virtually controls the skies, apart from 124 newspapers, and who has now bought a 49.9 per cent stake in Asia Today Limited (ATL), the broadcaster of Zee TV, cannot do such a minor thing. But that, according to the official stand of all the parties concerned, is the nature of the agreement. Chandra insists that ZTL, the supplier of software to ATL, will retain full editorial and managerial control of the programming. "Star TV managers can't tell us what to do," says Chandra. "yes, if we want, we can take their advice, but it won't be binding." Confirming this to INDIA TODAY, Charlie Horrell, Star's business development manager, said in Hong Kong: "We want to leave the editorial control to them because it's a Hindi channel and they're better placed than we are to judge what the audience wants. As a third party we'll only advise." What is important, emphasises Horrell, is what the viewer thinks as opposed to what Star does.
Media circles, however, are sceptical about this. Says a producer: "It's hard to believe that Murdoch will simply stay back and watch. It's only a matter to time before he buys up another 1 per cent of the ATL stakes to become the majority shareholder." Chandra, on the other hand, insists that this won't happen. "The remaining 50.1 per cent," he says, "is controlled by my family, and they will never sell out." Actually, the "family" is a group of four NRIs are whose identity Chandra refuses to reveal. All he says is that "the four NRIs like brothers in a joint family". The 49.9 per cent stake bought by Star earlier belonged to institutional investors-Jardine Fleming, Apac Holdings, General Oriental and W.I.Carr. ATL bought back the shares from the institutions before the deal and then re-sold them to Star.