Star India recently announced more channels were being added onto partner Apalya's mobile TV application and that it was launching it's own Mobile TV application soon. In this two part interview with Medianama, Gurtej Sandhu, SVP (Digital & IT), STAR India talks about a slew of launches planned including a Facebook widget and a lighter version for Orkut, a desktop application and targeting the typical Star TV viewer in India - a housewife - through the mobile and more. What are Star India's plans for social networks? We are currently testing a widget for Facebook - the open social application will allow users to share videos of shows. The first phase is live right now on Facebook, and we are now working on the second phase. Company-provided screenshots of the second version are available here and here. Why is there a second version? The reason we are doing the second version is advertising. The commercial opportunity is significant what it basically allows us social advertising on our base of content. It captures advertising dollars that would normally go to social media marketing to come through us. (ED: Will the launch of this widget boost the channel's popularity on Facebook? Star's Facebook page (community) has an appallingly low 36 fans, while NDTV's Tubaah as 204 fans. You can also read our take on challenges Tubaah faces on Medianama) What about Orkut? For Orkut, we are launching Star Player Light - it will maintain resolution even for lower bandwidth access. Of the two things…
