acquired Thames Television) has been looking to expand its media business outside the UK, especially because the British laws at that time did not allow Pearson to expand more on UK television business. Pearson was looking for the 66% of the company, but the deal was reported to have required the Hong Kong side to remain active shareholders, making the deal to be turned down. The initial negotiations with Rupert Murdoch were reported to have foundered after the Australian businessman demanded a controlling stake in the Hong Kong company. On 1 July 1993, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation officially grand formal full purchasing 100% of Star TV for US$525 million, half in cash, half in News Corporation's ordinary shares, blocking offers from Pearson. The deal came after News Corporation failed to acquire 22% of TVB because of regulatory issues. News Corporation acquired the remaining 36.4% for US$299 million in July 1995. Li family and Hutchison Whampoa would retain its shares in Hutchvision Hong Kong Limited, which uplinked Star TV's channels. With the amount of money made from the 1993 sale, Richard Li went on to establish his own venture, Pacific Century Group. On 1 August 1993, following News Corporation's takeover, Julian Mounter resigned as Chief Executive of the company. Sam Chisholm, who was the head of BSkyB at the time, became acting Chief Executive before he was formally appointed. With the controversial removal of BBC World Service Television from the company's satellite television offerings for Northeast Asia in 1994 (discussed below), Star TV replaced the BBC channel with two channels; English-language film channel Star Movies and Chinese-language film channel Star Chinese Movies. Star TV and Viacom (MTV) ended partnership that supplied music television programming, so Star TV launched Channel V to replace the American brand. The Indian version was launched on 23 May 1994, it was followed by four additional versions: Channel V International, Channel V Thailand, Channel V Korea, Channel V Japan, and another three versions in Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese and Cantonese. On 30 March 1996 at 7 pm Hong Kong Time, Star TV split into Star Plus and Star Chinese Channel by certain areas: Star Plus would continue to serve viewers in South Asia and the Middle East, while East and Southeast Asian viewers would receive the newly relaunched Star World channel. Star Chinese Channel would still be available to the viewers in Taiwan, but the television watchers in