Star Sports (Indian TV network)

Last updated

Star Sports
Star Sports Network.png
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
Launched28 October 1996;27 years ago (28 October 1996)
Links
Website hotstar.com TV Schedule
Availability
Streaming media
Disney+ Hotstar India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam
Hotstar Canada, United Kingdom and Singapore
Logo used former 19 November 2007 to 6 November 2013. Star Sports 2.png
Logo used former 19 November 2007 to 6 November 2013.

Star Sports is a group of South Asian pay television sports channels operated by Disney Star a subsidiary of Disney India.

Contents

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.

History

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]

Channels

ChannelLanguageSD/HD AvailabilityNotes
Star Sports 1 English SD+HDreplaced Star Sports
Star Sports 2 English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu
Star Sports 3 Hindi SDHD version launching soon
SD replaced Channel V
Star Sports Select 1 English SD+HDSD replaced Star Sports 4 SD
Star Sports Select 2SD replaced FX SD
Star Sports 1 Hindi Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali SD formerly Star Cricket
HD formerly ESPN HD
Star Sports First Hindi, English SDreplaced FX HD
Star Sports 1 Kannada Kannada HD version launching soon
Star Sports 1 Tamil Tamil SD+HDSD replaced Star Sports 4
HD replaced Star World SD
Star Sports 1 Telugu Telugu

Former channels

ChannelLanguageSD/HD AvailabilityNotes
Star Cricket Hindi, English SD+HDReplaced by Star Sports 1 Hindi
ESPN English Replaced by Star Sports 4
Star Sports 4Replaced by Star Sports 1 Tamil
Star Sports 1 Bangla Bengali SDDiscontinued on 14 March 2023
Star Sports 1 Marathi Marathi

Programming

EventsTenureHostChannelsStreaming
Premier Badminton League 2013–2025Flag of India.svg  India Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English) Disney+ Hotstar (India Only)
Andhra Premier League2023Flag of India.svg  India Star Sports 1 Telugu HD
Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 2023Flag of India.svg  India Star Sports 2 HD (In English)
Star Sports 1 Kannada HD
Tamil Nadu Premier League 2016–2023Flag of India.svg  India Star Sports 3 (In English)
Star Sports 1 Tamil HD
ICC Events 2024–2027Decided 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

ACC Under-19 Asia Cup

2016-2023Decided 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 2023–2030Decided 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 2023–2027Flag of India.svg  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] 2023Flag of Sri Lanka.svg  Sri Lanka Star Sports 1 HD (In English)
Big Bash League 2023–2030Flag of Australia (converted).svg  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 2023WestIndiesCricketFlagPre1999.svg  West Indies Star Sports 2 HD (In English)
Legends League Cricket [29] 2022–2023Flag of India.svg  India Star Sports 1 HD (In English)
Premier League 2022-2025Flag of England.svg  England Star Sports 3 (In Bengali, English)
Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English)
Pro Kabaddi League 2022-2025Flag of India.svg  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 Flag of Thailand.svg  Thailand
Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore
Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English)
Wimbledon Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom Star Sports Select 1 & 2 HD (In English)

See also

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