Twentieth Century Fox said Wednesday it has established an Asian unit specializing in local productions, starting with India, becoming the latest Hollywood studio to venture into the region.
The new studio will be a joint venture with the Asian satellite broadcaster STAR, called Fox STAR Studios, the two companies said in a joint statement.
Both companies are units of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Fox STAR Studios will start out making Bollywood films in Hindi as well in other regional Indian dialects.
STAR India president for strategy and corporate development Vijay Singh will lead the Indian operation.
“We are in discussion for producing not only traditional Bollywood films but also innovating and targeting emerging genres,” Singh said in the statement.
Fox STAR Studios will also branch into the Chinese-language and southeast Asian markets soon, the statement said.
STAR spokeswoman Jannie Poon said Fox STAR Studios will operate from several locations, with its first unit based in India’s Mumbai, home of the Bollywood industry.
Other major Hollywood studios producing Asian movies include Sony Pictures Entertainment with its Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, which invested in Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning kung fu hit “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Warner Bros. Pictures set up a joint venture with China’s state-run China Film Group and Hengdian Group in 2004, and has invested in Hindi films.
The Walt Disney Co. last year released a Chinese-language children’s movie that mixed live action and computer animation. It has also teamed up with Indian studio Yash Raj Films to make computer-animated movies.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More