Type | Sports |
---|---|
Country | India |
Broadcast area | Indian subcontinent |
Network | Disney Star |
Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
Programming | |
Language(s) | Hindi Bengali English Kannada Tamil Telugu |
Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to letterboxed 576i for the SDTV feed) |
Ownership | |
Owner | Disney India |
Sister channels | Disney Star Channels |
History | |
Launched | 28 October 1996 |
Links | |
Website | hotstar |
Availability | |
Streaming media | |
Disney+ Hotstar | India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam |
Hotstar | Canada, United Kingdom and Singapore |
Star Sports is a group of South Asian pay television sports channels operated by Disney Star a subsidiary of Disney India.
The networks were initially formed in 1991 as Star Hospital a joint venture between Star TV and Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) known as Prime Sports, taking their name from TCI's U.S. regional sports networks of the same name. In 1996, Star agreed to merge its sports networks in Asia with those of its rival ESPN, forming ESPN Star Sports. In June 2012, News Corporation acquired ESPN's stake in the joint venture; its corporate successor 21st Century Fox was, in turn, acquired by ESPN's majority-owner The Walt Disney Company in 2019.
Star Sports is a major broadcaster of cricket in India, holding the pay television rights to domestic national team matches, the Indian Premier League, and International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments. Streaming rights to many Star Sports properties are held in India by sister streaming service Disney+ Hotstar.
Hong Kong-based Star TV launched Prime Sports (later renamed Star Sports) in partnership with American company TCI, which owned Prime-branded regional sports channels. The channel was broadcast across Asia, including India, as with the footprint of AsiaSat 7. Star TV has since regionalized the channel with several versions. Later, ESPN joined the region as a competitor to Star Sports. [1]
In October 1996, Star Sports announced an agreement to merge its operations with those of ESPN International in the region, forming a Singapore-based joint venture known as ESPN Star Sports. [2] [3]
In June 2012, it was announced that Star TV, by then owned by News Corporation, would acquire ESPN's share in ESPN Star Sports. [4] [5] The sale was completed in January 2013. [6] [7] On 11 March 2013, Star Sports 2, a Hindi-language sports channel, was launched as a sister channel to Star Sports, Star Cricket and ESPN. [8]
On 6 November 2013, Star Sports introduced a new brand identity and re-aligned its channels in India; [9] Star Sports became Star Sports 1; Star Cricket became Star Sports 3, a Hindi language channel; ESPN became Star Sports 4, a Tamil language channel, and Star Cricket HD and ESPN HD became Star Sports HD1 and HD2 respectively. [10] [11] In Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, the ESPN Star Sports channels were relaunched by Fox International Channels Asia Pacific as Fox Sports. [12] [13] [14] [15] ESPN International later established a partnership with Multi-Screen Media in October 2015, which rebranded Sony Kix as Sony ESPN in January 2016. [16]
Star India planned to replace the troubled Channel V with Star Sports 1 Kannada on 16 November 2017, but the delay in regulatory approval meant the plan was postponed. Later, Star India replaced Channel V into the current iteration of Star Sports 3 on 15 September 2018, [17] [18] [19] [20] and launched Star Sports 1 Telugu and Star Sports 1 Kannada as new channels on 7 and 29 December 2018, respectively. [21] [22] In the meantime, Kannada commentary of Star Sports' coverage of the Indian Premier League was broadcast on Star Suvarna. [23]
21st Century Fox was acquired by Disney on 19 March 2019, giving it ownership of Star Sports. [24]
Ahead of the 2023 Indian Premier League—whose streaming rights would now be owned by JioCinema—Star Sports announced that it would launch feeds of Star Sports 1 Tamil and Telugu in HD on 15 March 2023. Concurrently, the Bangla and Marathi feeds were discontinued. [25] [26] In June 2023, in response to JioCinema's decision to stream every IPL 2023 match for free, Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar announced that the 2023 Asia Cup and 2023 Men's Cricket World Cup would stream for free on mobile devices. [27]
Channel | Language | SD/HD Availability | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Star Sports 1 | English | SD+HD | replaced Star Sports |
Star Sports 2 | English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu | ||
Star Sports 3 | Hindi | SD | HD version launching soon SD replaced Channel V |
Star Sports Select 1 | English | SD+HD | SD replaced Star Sports 4 SD |
Star Sports Select 2 | SD replaced FX SD | ||
Star Sports 1 Hindi | Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali | SD formerly Star Cricket HD formerly ESPN HD | |
Star Sports First | Hindi, English | SD | replaced FX HD |
Star Sports 1 Kannada | Kannada | HD version launching soon | |
Star Sports 1 Tamil | Tamil | SD+HD | SD replaced Star Sports 4 HD replaced Star World SD |
Star Sports 1 Telugu | Telugu |
Channel | Language | SD/HD Availability | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Star Cricket | Hindi, English | SD+HD | Replaced by Star Sports 1 Hindi |
ESPN | English | Replaced by Star Sports 4 | |
Star Sports 4 | Replaced by Star Sports 1 Tamil | ||
Star Sports 1 Bangla | Bengali | SD | Discontinued on 14 March 2023 |
Star Sports 1 Marathi | Marathi |
Events | Tenure | Host | Channels | Streaming |
---|---|---|---|---|
Premier Badminton League | 2013–2025 | India | Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English) | Disney+ Hotstar (India Only) |
Andhra Premier League | 2023 | India | Star Sports 1 Telugu HD | |
Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 | 2023 | India | Star Sports 2 HD (In English) Star Sports 1 Kannada HD | |
Tamil Nadu Premier League | 2016–2023 | India | Star Sports 3 (In English) Star Sports 1 Tamil HD | |
ICC Events | 2024–2027 | Decided by International Cricket Council | Star Sports 1 & 2 HD (In English) Star Sports 1 Hindi HD Star Sports 1 Kannada HD Star Sports 1 Tamil HD Star Sports 1 Telugu HD Star Sports Select 2 HD (In English) | Disney+ Hotstar (India Only) |
Asia Cup Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup | 2016-2023 | Decided by Asian Cricket Council | Star Sports 1 HD (In English) Star Sports 1 Hindi HD Star Sports 1 Kannada HD Star Sports 1 Tamil HD Star Sports 1 Telugu HD | |
Cricket in Australia | 2023–2030 | Decided by CA | Star Sports 1 HD (In English) Star Sports 1 Hindi HD Star Sports 1 Kannada HD Star Sports 1 Tamil HD Star Sports 1 Telugu HD Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English) | |
Indian Premier League | 2023–2027 | India | Star Sports 1 & 2 HD (English) Star Sports Select 1 HD (English) Star Sports 1 Hindi HD Star Sports 1 Kannada Star Sports 3 Star Sports 1 Tamil HD Star Sports 1 Telugu HD Star Gold HD (Hindi) Star Utsav Movies (Hindi) Vijay Super (Tamil) Star Maa Gold (Telugu) Star Suvarna Plus (Kannada) Star Jalsha Movies (Bengali) | |
Lanka Premier League [28] | 2023 | Sri Lanka | Star Sports 1 HD (In English) | |
Big Bash League | 2023–2030 | Australia | Star Sports 2 HD (In English) Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English Star Sports 1 Hindi HD (Only weekends) | Disney+ Hotstar (India Only) |
Caribbean Premier League | 2023 | West Indies | Star Sports 2 HD (In English) | |
Legends League Cricket [29] | 2022–2023 | India | Star Sports 1 HD (In English) | |
Premier League | 2022-2025 | England | Star Sports 3 (In Bengali, English) Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English) | |
Pro Kabaddi League | 2022-2025 | India | Star Sports 2 HD (In English) Star Sports 1 Hindi HD Star Sports 1 Kannada HD Star Sports 1 Tamil HD Star Sports 1 Telugu HD | |
ONE Championship | Thailand Singapore | Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English) | ||
Wimbledon | United Kingdom | Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English) |
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