India has a population of 1 billion people, yet fewer than 16 million households have multi-channel television of any kind, and there are fewer than one million dishes installed in the entire country. Indonesia is home to 200 million people, yet only 26 million households have any television service at all. Even with these successes and the tremendous expansion in the scope of our operations, News Corporation is quite small relative to the opportunities in the global market for media. For this reason, the years ahead look incredibly exciting. The market is growing at a breathtaking pace due to a variety of forces.
Technology continues to create new opportunities.
Worldwide economic growth, especially in areas hardly served by most media, is increasing the demand for media products. Rising incomes and literacy levels around the world are creating bigger and more sophisticated markets for media and entertainment products. The competition in the global media marketplace will be fierce and will favor those companies with financial strength. As you know, maintaining our financial strength has been a priority for us. These cash resources, together with our established cash flows, give us the flexibility to finance future investments without jeopardizing our investment-grade credit ratings.