The recent phone hacking related events at Rupert Murdoch's News International in the UK have shone a light on Murdoch and his parent company News Corporation. However，the emphasis has largely been on News Corporation's operations in the UK and by the implication of the possible phone tapping of 9/11^[1] victims，to some extent，in the USA. But it is important to be reminded that the Murdoch owned News Corporation is a global empire traversing numerous countries across the continents of Asia，Africa，Europe，Australia and the USA. In other words，with the exception of the Arctic and the Antarctic，News Corporation and its subsidiary companies have their footprints on every continent on our globe.

This chapter will study Rupert Murdoch's entry into India and analyse how his business decisions metamorphosised the televisual landscape of the country. In so doing，it will theorise and understand the current processes of media globalisation that are underway in our societies the world over.

The development and commercialisation of satellite television，together with the deregulatory frameworks adopted by an increasing number of countries such as India，China and Brazil，mainly in the late twentieth century，have played a pivotal role in the globalisation of television. This facilitated the expansion of Murdoch's media interests into newer countries，India being a case in point. Accordingly，this chapter at the outset delineates the development of satellite technology and its commercial usurpation by the corporate sector. It accordingly understands contemporary media globalisation as an overarching，economically motivated phenomenon. Subsequently，this chapter proceeds to analyse the entry and proliferation of satellite television in India，facilitated by Murdoch's Star （i.e.，Satellite Television Asia Region），using the example of Star's transformation as a case in point to extrapolate a shift from hitherto known，predominant globalisation debates.

SATELLITE TELEVISION AND CAPITALIST GLOBALISATION

In the 1960s US telecommunications companies，the likes of Hughes，RCA and AT&T launched the first satellites that were used for communication purposes. Among the very first international events to be broadcast globally，a feat made possible by the advent of satellite technology，were the 1964 Olympic Games held in Tokyo. The broadcast was made by the USA，thereby the country stamping its indelible authority over satellite communications at the very outset. Furthermore，US government incentives^[2] produced COMSAT （the Communications Satellite Corporation）. Deriving from COMSAT，1964 saw the formation of INTELSAT （the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation）. Allegedly achieving its autonomy from COMSAT in 1973，theoretically its ownership involves in excess of a hundred countries，though the US remains the key player as the major stakeholder^[3] controlling more than 50% of the consortium. （Communications Satellite Corporation，2005） Satellite television's inextricable connection with the USA from its very inception to its further developmental stages，and the subsequent ownership of the technology by US companies professing neo-liberal policies，has had far-reaching implications for the authority and authorship of the globalisation of television. Consequences of televisual globalisation have not been restricted to the practicalities of enhanced connectivity between global communities and the circulation of forms，formats，genres and images via its medium the world over，rather，they have superseded the tangible construction of the medium itself-by way of the processes of change effected by the messages it carries-on the identities of peoples，communities，cultures and nations.

Scholars such as Herbert Schiller，Ben Bagdikian，Robert McChesney and Edward Herman have written exhaustively，lucidly and insightfully on the globalised workings of media conglomerates and their pernicious influences on the media policies of governments and how they function to the detriment of the public good. However，common rhetoric deduced from their expositions give currency to the much dreaded fear of the processes of homogenisation initiated by the USA，that is，the media's dissemination of American culture on a global scale； a dissemination that is said to imperil the world's cultural diversity through the dilution of other global cultures and，that in the long run calls into question the very survival of such cultures，most of which are positioned by hegemonic Western discourses in subaltern contexts. However，in contradiction to the debates that media globalisation （including and especially that of television） precipitates the homogenisation of cultures the world over，the findings of the case of Star in India，detailed subsequently in this chapter，illustrate that the processes and consequences of televisual globalisation have thus far not be