STAR India, formerly Star India Private Limited, is one of India's largest media conglomerates, a fully owned subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The network reaches approximately 720 million viewers a month across India and more than 100 countries. Star India generates more than 30,000 hours of content every year and broadcasts 60+ channels.
Star India is home to Star Plus, one of India's top Hindi General Entertainment Channels. The network also owns a number of popular channels like Star Bharat, Star Gold, Channel V, Star World, Star Movies, Star Utsav, and Movies OK, Star Vijay, Asianet, Asianet Plus, Asianet Movies, Star Suvarna, Suvarna Plus, Star Maa, Star maa Movies, Star Maa Music, Star Maa Gold.
The company's sports portfolio, Star Sports, consists of 12 channels across Hindi, English, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. The company has a major presence in sports, most notably for their Rs 163475 million purchase of IPL media rights for 2018-2022.
Video Star India
History
Founding
STAR TV was a joint venture between Hutchison Whampoa and Li Ka-shing and was established to launch such a service. Li Ka-Shing's son, Richard, was CEO. It was launched in 1991.
1990s and early 2000s
In early 90s, Star India included Star Plus (then an English-language entertainment channel), Prime Sports (later became Star Sports), MTV (through a tie up with Viacom), Star Movies and Zee TV (belonging to Subhash Chandra).
In 1992, Rupert Murdoch bought a 64 percent stake in Star TV for $525 million. Star was originally broadcasting content from Rupert Murdoch's Fox Broadcasting and thus a synergy was envisioned. In 1992 News Corporation purchased 63.6% of STAR for over $500 million, followed by the purchase of the remaining 36.4% on 1 January 1993. Murdoch declared that:
"(telecommunications) have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere ... satellite broadcasting makes it possible for information-hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state-controlled television channels"
Between 1994 and 1998, Star TV launched Star Movies, Channel V and Star News with a limited Hindi offering. In 1991, Star India launched Star Plus as the first step towards leadership in the Hindi speaking market. Peter Mukerjea was the chief executive officer of star india(1997-2007)
Star India also launched India's first dedicated news channel in 1998, STAR News, an up-to-date, 24-hour news with a global focus. In September 2003, 21st Century Fox entered into a joint venture for Star News and other regional language news channels with the Anand Bazar Patrika Group in September 2003. The company subsequently exited from this joint venture with the ABP Group in 2012.
Regional expansion
In 2002, Star India and its affiliate company acquired Vijay TV to extend its reach beyond Hindi speaking markets. In 2004 Star India launched its second Hindi channel, Star One. In 2008, Star launched Star Jalsha and Star Pravah as a first step to enter the local language market.
In 2009, Star India acquired Asianet Communications Limited, a media conglomerate headquartered in Trivandrum, India, a market leader in Malayalam language TV content with a wide reach across 60 countries.(Asianet was the first privately owned television channel in Malayalam and the second to broadcast in India.) This acquisition was the first major step for Star India to become a Pan-Indian broadcaster.
Restructuring
In August 2009, the Star Group restructured its Asian broadcast businesses into three units - Star India, Star, and Fox International Channels Asia.
In 2009, Star affiliate and CJ Group of South Korea launched CJ Alive (later known as ShopCJ), an Indian television shopping channel. It was a 24/7 shopping channel which used STAR Utsav for hosting the television marketing programs in six-hour slots in its initial stage of launch. Star affiliate exited the joint venture in May 2014.
In 2009, 21st Century Fox launched a film production and distribution business in India through Fox Star Studios India, an affiliate of Star India. In 2011, STAR India entered into High Definition broadcasting with the launch of the HD versions of its channels, including STAR Plus HD, STAR Movies HD, STAR World HD, Star Gold HD and National Geographic Channel India HD.
Indian Premiere League and Hotstar
In 2012, Star India acquired the BCCI Rights for India cricket for the period 2012 through 2018. ESPN was renamed Star Sports 4, STAR Cricket was renamed Star Sports 3, Star Sports was renamed to Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 2 kept its name. STAR Cricket HD and ESPN HD were renamed to Star Sports HD1 and Star Sports HD2 respectively.
In 2015, Star India forayed into the video-on-demand segment with the launch of Hotstar, India's first curated content Over-The-Top platform.
In 2015, Star India expanded its Pan-India portfolio by acquiring the broadcasting business of MAA TV, a leading Telugu TV channel network based in Hyderabad, to enter the Telugu language market.
Maps Star India
Acquisition by the Walt Disney Company
On 14 December 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced it will be acquiring 21st Century Fox's Entertainment Division for $52.4 billion. Since Star India is currently owned by Fox it will automatically be one of the assets acquired by Disney.
Business results
In August 2012, Business Line of The Hindu group reported that Star CJ Alive is claiming a average sales of products worth Rs. 9.5 million on week days and Rs. 12 million on weekends. Approximately 65% of the sales come from electronics segment while household segment stands second in the race. In December 2012, some sections of the media reported that Rupert Murdoch run News Corp may exit Star CJ by selling its entire stake to Providence Equity Partners. This share transfer reportedly ran into trouble when the Department of Revenue discovered that funds from other jurisdictions were being channelised to exploit Indo Mauritius double taxation avoidance agreement.
STAR India Entertainment provides 52 channels while STAR India Sports provides 12 channels
Star India digital online app
Hotstar is an online streaming service to watch all Star India's Channel shows and many more by using app or website. Many shows can be downloaded in mobile by using Hotstar app. It earns revenue through ads and premium membership.
National Sports Network in India
The STAR sports group has planned to build a national sports network in India. The plan includes broadcasting in Indian languages. Starting from regional language Hindi to expansion for South Indian languages Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. ESPN was renamed STAR Sports 4, STAR Cricket was renamed Star Sports 3, Star Sports was renamed to STAR Sports 1 and STAR Sports 2 kept its name. STAR Cricket HD and ESPN HD renamed to STAR Sports HD1 and STAR Sports HD2 respectively. STAR Sports 3 will be predominantly a Hindi-only channel. STAR plans to start with cricket, field hockey and football (soccer) initially. Domestic cricket of India like Deodhar Trophy and Ranji Trophy are considered. Besides, this two non-professional leagues like the University Cricket and University Field Hockey are also planned to be launched by STAR. In football, Barclays Premier League is also considered for regional broadcasting by STAR.
Broadcasting rights
STAR India has acquired media rights for BCCI Domestic and International Cricket Series matches in India through 2023, International Cricket Council matches through 2023,Bangladesh National Cricket Team through 2020,New Zealand Cricket Board through 2020,Premier League Football through 2019,Federation International De Hockey through 2022, Wimbledon through 2022 and Bundesliga through 2020. On 4 September 2017, STAR India acquired digital as well as media rights for Indian Premier League for a term of five years 2018-2023 with a whooping bid of INR 163475 million(US$2.55 billion). In September 2014, STAR India acquired a 35% minority stake in Football Sports Development Limited, a joint venture with IMG-Reliance to launch the Indian Super League, a professional soccer league. In March 2015, STAR India, in association with its affiliate, acquired a 74% majority stake in Mashal Sports Private Limited in March 2015, for the operation of the Pro Kabaddi League In January 2015, STAR India, launched Hotstar, a new mobile and online entertainment destination for television shows, movies and sports content. In February 2015, STAR India entered into an agreement to acquire the broadcast business of MAA Television Network Limited, an entity in India that broadcasts and operates Telugu language entertainment channels. In December 2015, STAR India announced it has successfully completed the integration of the broadcast business of MAA TV in a deal estimated to be between Rs 2,000 to 25 billion.
See also
- Star TV (Asian TV networks)
- Star China Media
- Fox International Channels
References
Further reading
- "Star India, Netflix Part of Global Coalition Fighting Online Piracy". India West. 4 July 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
External links
- Official Site (STAR TV US)
Source of article : Wikipedia
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