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Star to air Plus, News channels in the US

Savio G Pinto & Anusha Subramanian

Star India is planning to distribute the Star Plus and Star News channels in the USA. The move is aimed at targeting the large Indian diaspora there, Star India's chief operating officer Sameer Nair said.

The proposed launch comes after the network's successful launch of both these channels in the UK, and are distributed through the Sky channels bouquet as well as through independent cable operators.

Incidentally, like Star, Sky is also owned by Rupert Murdoch. The formal launch of these channels in the US is expected sometime towards the end of August or beginning of September, "since certain issues are still in the process of being finalised".

The subscription rate for these channels in the UK is at £6 a channel, the US rates are also expected to be on similar lines.

In an another development, Star has also bagged the satellite rights of the Farhan Akhtar directed blockbuster Dil Chahata Hai reportedly for a sum around Rs 30 million.

Nair while confirming that Star had indeed closed the deal refused to divulge the exact amount at which the rights were purchased.

In fact, Star has also bought the rights of two other recent hits, the Bipasha Basu-Dino Morea starrer and Vikram Bhatt directed Raaz and the Akshay Kumar-Bipasha Basu, Bobby Deol and Kareena Kapoor starrer Ajnabee. Incidentally, Raaz is the only hit notched in the last six months by the Bollywood film industry.

However Nair said, "Despite the rates for satellite rights of movies having dropped substantially, Star will not be buying movie rights recklessly in order to build up a library.

Purchases would be determined by the tastes of the viewers and Star would be very selective in what movies it picks up," he added.

Rates for satellite rights of Bollywood movies have dropped substantially from the peak of around Rs 80 million a couple of years back to just about Rs 40 million for a superhit. Rates for less successful films could be anywhere in between Rs 25 million to around Rs 30 million on an average.

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