Rupert Murdoch's Star Network, owned by News Corp, has bought "nearly all" of Indian consumer internet portal indya.com.

English language Star has been investing more than $150m in about 20 dot.coms across Asia to provide its viewers with local-language content.

"We started out with 37%. Now we have nearly all of it," Gary Walrath, executive vice-president of Star Group, told a news conference in Bangalore where indya.com is based.

Star invested $50m for the initial 37% stake in April, but the additional holding cost much less Mr Walrath said without giving a figure.

Star performer

News Corp has recently bought stakes in Hong Kong's renren.com, the Chinese portal Netease and the Indian auction site Baazee.

But the company's entry into the Indian market has suffered a number of setbacks.

Star recently ended its partnership with Zee TV, India's largest private television broadcaster, while the failure of News Corp's ISkyB satellite channel left its strategy in disarray.

News Corp launched the channel in 1997 before getting the go-ahead from the Indian government which eventually denied it permission to broadcast.