China Mobile, News Corporation and STAR Join Forces to Explore Wireless Media Opportunities

China Mobile, News Corporation and STAR Join Forces to Explore Wireless Media Opportunities

BEIJING, NEW YORK and HONG KONG, June 8 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- China Mobile Limited ("China Mobile"; NYSE: CHL; HKSE: 941), News Corporation and STAR Group Limited ("STAR") today announced a broad strategic partnership to explore wireless media business opportunities.

By leveraging the content assets and interactive services of News Corporation and STAR, the partners will combine their strengths to develop wireless media services based on China Mobile's mobile platform, through which China Mobile serves over 260 million subscribers. The cooperation will explore wireless media business opportunities on a global basis.

Key areas of the cooperation will include development, production, aggregation and distribution of a wide array of wireless services ranging from music, broadband interactivity, and social networking to multimedia value- added products.

Wang Jianzhou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of China Mobile, said, "The partnership with News Corporation and STAR will lay a solid foundation for providing wireless multimedia services. This is a very important step for us in view of the global convergence of telecommunication, media and Internet. With News Corporation and STAR's popular and quality media content assets, we will be able to offer more exciting services to our customers."

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, said, "Partnering with China Mobile -- the biggest wireless carrier in the world -- gives us immediate access to a vast consumer base throughout China. News Corp. has been a world leader in wireless content while our services such as MySpace dominate the online social networking craze. It is my hope that this partnership will unleash the creative and technical abilities of the talented employees of News Corp. and China Mobile to bring new offerings to consumers across mainland China and Hong Kong."

Michelle Guthrie, Chief Executive Officer of STAR, added, "Today's partnership represents an important new media growth opportunity for STAR. China Mobile's world-leading expertise, customer base and exciting growth initiatives will allow us to expand the STAR brands and services in the largest wireless market in the world. We look forward to working closely with them to bring a new level of wireless entertainment to the consumer."

Goldman Sachs is acting as financial advisor to China Mobile. Merrill Lynch is acting as financial advisor to STAR.

About China Mobile

China Mobile is a leading mobile telecommunications service provider in China, providing mobile voice and data telecommunications and related services to all 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in the mainland as well as being one of the major mobile telecommunications service providers in Hong Kong. As of 30 April 2006, China Mobile had an aggregate mobile telecommunications subscriber base of nearly 265 million, the largest worldwide.

About News Corporation

News Corporation had total assets as of March 31, 2006 of approximately US$55 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$25 billion. News Corporation is a diversified international media and entertainment company with operations in eight industry segments: filmed entertainment; television; cable network programming; direct broadcast satellite television; magazines and inserts; newspapers; book publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and the Pacific Basin.

About STAR

STAR is a leading media and entertainment company in Asia. STAR broadcasts over 50 television services in nine languages to more than 300 million viewers across 53 Asian countries. STAR channels cover all genres including general entertainment, sports, movies, and news & current affairs. STAR controls over 20,000 hours of Indian and Chinese programming and also owns the world's largest contemporary Chinese film library. In partnership with leading companies in Asia, STAR businesses extend to filmed entertainment, television production, cable systems, direct-to-home services, terrestrial TV broadcasting, wireless and digital services. STAR is a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation.

For press enquiries, please contact:

China Mobile
Mr. Guan Yimin or Ms. Rainie Lei
Tel: +852-3121-8888
Fax: +852-3121-8809

News Corporation
Mr. Andrew Butcher
Tel: +1-212-852-7070
Email: abutcher@newscorp.com

STAR
Ms Jannie Poon / Mr Allen Chen
Tel: +852-2621-8619 / +86-10-8518-8500
Email: janniep@startv.com / yhchen@cn.startv.com

Source: China Mobile Limited; News Corporation; STAR Group Limited

CONTACT: Mr. Guan Yimin or Ms. Rainie Lei of China Mobile, +852-3121-
8888, or fax, +852-3121-8809; or Mr. Andrew Butcher of News Corporation, +1-
212-852-7070, or abutcher@newscorp.com; Ms Jannie Poon or Mr Allen Chen of
STAR, +852-2621-8619, +86-10-8518-8500, or janniep@startv.com, or
yhchen@cn.startv.com

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