Star top honcho Uday Shankar, has been named by Variety 500 as one of the world’s top executives and his 21st Century Fox’s Star India Group have been tagged as major players in Asia. With a market worth close to $14 billion, Star’s portfolio of lifestyle and entertainment channels include the 10 Ten Sports channels driving growth.
It was Shankar’s insight into Indian cricket culture that allowed Star to reap the rewards of their $750 million investment by getting cricket broadcasting rights through 2018. The next round of bidding is believed to touch billions.
However, Shankar also pushed to diversify and move beyond cricket, with $3.2 billion investments in hockey, soccer and badminton leagues. Another major investment, Hotstar, the streaming platform, has been extremely successful on more than 800 million smartphones and boasts of close to 100 million subscribers in 2016.
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From beginning as a political journalist with the Times of India before starting with Star India, Shankar’s career trajectory has seen a tremendous rise over the years and is a great success story of the sub-continent’s media history.