DESPITE Rupert Murdoch's recent purchase of the remaining 36.4 per cent of STAR TV from Hutchison Whampoa and Richard Li Tzar-ki's Genza Investments, media analysts say the Li family will continue to have a strong presence at the station.
The Hong Kong family still owns 52 per cent of the network's licence (48 per cent is owned by Mr Murdoch's News Corp) to operate and the broadcasting licence to uplink the channels. One analyst called this situation a potential business risk.
'News Corp has control over the operations, yet does not have control of the uplink. I'm sure it's not a situation which they are completely happy with,' said Charles Whitworth, a research analyst for the brokerage firm James Capel.
'But the legislation is there - they can't have any uplink licence without having a [local] partner.' Helena Coles, of the merchant bank, Kleinwort Benson, said the situation was for pure business interests.
'The Li family charges him something and Rupert gets the service. I don't think there will be any negative implications for Rupert Murdoch. I imagine the Li family were very pleased to sell out of STAR TV at a good price,' she said.
Susan Schoenfeld, president of AIM Asia, a Hong Kong-based media consulting group, said it was unlikely STAR would have put itself in a position where there was a risk in real control of the uplink licence.