Just six months after quitting the board of News Corp, James Murdoch has announced that he is to link up with former Star colleague Uday Shanka to launch a new media and tech venture for the Indian media market. The new company will aim to take advantage of the explosion in connectivity that has seen the cost of mobile data plunge across India. It will also be looking to identify ‘new opportunities for innovation’ elsewhere in Asia.
Murdoch and Shankar previously collaborated to grow Star into a dominant force in the Indian TV market before it became part of Disney through Mouse House’s $71.3bn takeover of 21st Century Fox in 2019. They were instrumental in growing Star’s monthly subscriber base to more than 600 million viewers. Shanka announced his resignation from Disney in December.