In a meeting held on Wednesday, Basu assured the Star TV staff that there will be no retrenchment in case consolidation talks between Zee and Star materialise.

Basu said that talks are being held between the owners of the two channels towards a consolidated strategy for the entire network which would be for the betterment of business.

It is believed that negotiations between the Subhash Chandra and Rupert Murdoch are on for common marketing for Zee and Star.

When contacted, Star's spokesperson said that the purpose of Basu's meeting was to show the video recording of a conference addressed by Murdoch in Sun Valley, Idaho, two months ago. The spokesperson added that the meeting was a routine affair.

Sources said that it is still unclear whether the two channels would finally decide to merge or settle for a negotiation regarding the managementcontrol of Indian operations.

The two channels have appointed at least four independent agencies to appraise the projects and give their recommendations on consolidation.

While Goldman Sachs has prepared one of the reports, the other reports are being prepared by Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and another agency.

Star's direct-to-home project is, however, gathering dust and, in case the channel works closely with Zee, it may prove to be fruitful. Similarly, Star's excessive reliance on out-sourced software is proving to be too expensive vis-a-vis Zee, which relies on in-house production for 95 per cent of its programming. Analysts say that in case the two channels join hands the conglomerate will be the strongest media group in the country.