INDIA may be a burning hot new market for satellite television programmers, but threatened with a $390 million lawsuit, Hong Kong's STAR TV is increasingly aware the industry in the sub-continent plays by a different rule book.
STAR TV is to launch its Zee Cinema channel next Sunday, carrying films in Hindi and other Indian languages in exchange for a subscription fee from viewers. But this has upset Bombay-based film tycoon Dhirubhai Shah who claims copyrights he says he has on 2,500 Indian movies will be breached.
In a report carried by the Times of India news service, Shah has warned he will file a lawsuit in Hong Kong when Zee is launched. At the same time he intends to file 25 writs against Zee Cinema in the high court in Bombay, asking for a total of $390 million.
Shah also threatens that staff working for his cartel (consisting of six movie libraries and Indian satellite broadcaster ATN) will raid some of the thousands of cable television operators offering Zee. A startling example of self-help copyright enforcement, although he added his people would be 'helped' by police.
STAR TV and Zee TV executives in Hong Kong and India insist Shah's case is unlikely to succeed. While his cartel has amassed the movie rights to show them on cable TV systems, Zee TV owns the satellite broadcasting rights.
In Hong Kong STAR Movies head Tony Watts, who is also in charge of purchasing for Zee Cinema, says it is unlikely to be a coincidence that Shah's cartel is also hoping to launch its own subscription-based movie channel this month.
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