In 1992, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation purchased 63.6% of Star India for $525million, followed by the purchase of the remaining 36.4% on 1 January 1993. Star broadcasting operations were run from Rupert Murdoch's Fox Broadcasting premises.[5][6] It later launched Star Movies, Channel V, and Star News with a limited Hindi offering, and then Star Plus for Indian viewers.[7][8][9][10]
2001–2017
In 2001, Star India acquired South India based Vijay TV.[11] In 2003, Star India's Star News deal with NDTV ended. In the same year, the Indian government introduced a guideline limiting foreign equity in the national news business to 26%. At that time Star India was wholly owned by Hong Kong-based company Satellite Television Asia Region Ltd. As a result, Star India entered into a joint venture with the Ananda Bazar Patrika group (ABP) to form a new company, Media Content and Communications Services Pvt. Ltd. (MCCS), which took control of Star News's operations. ABP held a 74% majority stake, while Star India reduced its participation with the remaining 26% to comply with the regulations set for the uplinking of news and current affairs channels by the Government of India. Star India, subsequently exited from this joint venture in 2012. After the split, the channel was renamed ABP News and operated by Anandabazar Patrika Group.[10]
In 2009, Star India acquired Kerala-based media conglomerate Asianet Communications, which served Malayalam language content.[15] In August 2009, the Star Group restructured its Asian broadcast businesses into three units – Star India, Star China Media, and Fox International Channels Asia.[15]
In the same year, Star Affiliate and CJ Group of South Korea launched CJ Alive (later known as Shop CJ), a 24-hour Indian television shopping channel that 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.[16]
News Corporation launched a film production and distribution business in India through Fox Star Studios India, an affiliate of Star India in the same year.[17]
On 6 November 2013, Star India rebranded its Star Sports channels, renaming the main Star Sports channel to Star Sports 1, Star Cricket to Hindi-language Star Sports 3, ESPN to Tamil-language Star Sports 4, and Star Cricket HD and ESPN HD to Star Sports HD1 and HD2.[19][20]
In February 2015, Star India launched its streaming service, Hotstar, a mobile and online entertainment OTT platform that features content in 9 Indian languages and broadcasts sporting events.[21][22][23] Star also acquired the broadcast businesses of Maa Television Pvt. Ltd to boost its presence in Telugu-speaking markets.[24]
In February 2017, Star India and global media conglomerate TED announced a new TV series, TED Talks India – Nayi Soch. The programme starred Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and featured newer TED talks made in Hindi language. The programme followed the signature TED format of prominent speakers voicing their opinions in an 18-minute or less monologue in front of a live audience.[25][26]
On 28 August 2017, Star India rebranded its Hindi entertainment channel Life OK to Star Bharat.[27]
On 5 September 2017, Star India won the global media rights to broadcast the Indian Premier League (IPL) under a five-year deal beginning in the 2018 tournament, and valued at 163.475billion. Beating previous rightsholder Sony, the contract included domestic rights for Star Sports, and digital rights for Hotstar.[28]
In 2018, Star India renewed its BCCI rights through March 2023, in a contract valued at ₹61,384.1 crore (equivalent to ₹820billionorUS$9.8billion in 2023).[31]
On 13 December 2018, Disney announced Uday Shankar who serves as chairman of Star India would lead Disney's Asian operations and would become the new chairman of Disney India, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, being re-organized under Disney India.[32] On 27 August 2018, the channel Star Life was launched in Africa in English language offering the English dubbed Indian Hindi series from the Indian star channels.[33][34]
On 4 January 2019, Star TV shut down its television operations in USA for the promotion of its digital counterpart, Hotstar.[35]
On 20 March 2019, Star India became a subsidiary of Disney India after the US$71.3 billion deal in the acquisition of former parent company 21st Century Fox was closed. Now, Disney India owns television channels of UTV Software Communications and Star India.[36][37]
In April 2020, the Walt Disney Company merged Hotstar with Disney+ in India to form Disney+ Hotstar with Hotstar operating independently and coexisting with Disney+ in Canada and US,[38] since it launched on 4 September 2017; the United Kingdom on 13 September 2018;[39] and Singapore on 4 November 2020, prior to Disney+ in the country.[40]
On 30 December 2020, Disney announced that the Star branding would be replaced with Utsav from 1 February in the Netherlands,[41] with the Utsav Gold, Utsav Plus and Utsav Bharat branding launching in the UK on 22 January 2021, Star Vijay's international feed also changed a new logo based with Utsav Network in yellow colour and rebranded as Vijay TV around the world on that same day, Utsav Network would separated to Star Gold, Plus and Bharat, the Asian feed would launch in South Korea.[42]
On 31 August 2021, Disney announced that it would phase out Hotstar in the US and move all content into Hulu and ESPN+. Initially, it was announced that the service would shut down in the US by late 2022,[43] until it got moved to an earlier date on 30 November 2021.[44]
On 18 October 2021, Disney and Star announced that they would exit from the English general entertainment industry and that they would close down Star World and Star World Premiere in India originally planned by 30 November 2021 (although the Star Movies channels, alongside Disney International HD will not be affected). The Bangla and Marathi feeds of Star Sports 1 will also close on the same day. Meanwhile, the Star Gold brand would expand with the launch of an HD simulcast of Star Gold 2 that would replace UTV HD, alongside the rebranding of UTV Movies and UTV Action as Star Gold Romance and Star Gold Thrills. Star Movies Select HD, Star Movies Hindi, and Star Movies Tamil will also launch an SD simulcast, becoming the first niche premium English movie channel in India to do so.[45] However, a delay in TRAI's new tariff order, followed by protests from digital cable operators and multi-system operators, caused the plans to be postponed till mid-March 2023.[46]
On 14 April 2022, Disney India rebranded Star India to Disney Star.[47] On 27 May 2022, Fox Star Studios was renamed just Star Studios, as part of the removal of the "Fox" name from the studios that had been acquired from 21st Century Fox by Disney.[48]
In July 2023, The Walt Disney Company began exploring strategic options, including a sale or formation of a joint venture, for their businesses in India.[49] Between September and October 2023, the company held preliminary talks with Reliance Industries, billionaire Gautam Adani and Kalanithi Maran, owner of the Sun Group, for a potential sale of its streaming and linear television assets.[50][51] In late October 2023, it was reported that Disney was nearing a cash and stock deal with Reliance Industries for the sale of its operations in India, including a controlling stake in Disney Star. The assets Reliance would acquire are reportedly valued at around $7–8 billion and a transaction was to be announced as early as November.[52] Although Disney CEO Bob Iger refuted claims of a sale during a third-quarter earnings call, it was announced in December 2023 that Disney and Reliance had signed a non-binding term sheet for a merger. According to its terms, Reliance would hold 51% of the merged company in cash and stock, while Disney would own the remaining 49%. For purposes of the merger, a subsidiary of Viacom18 was created to absorb Disney Star through a stock swap,[53] pending ratification and regulatory approval.[54][55][56][57]
In February 2024, Disney and Reliance reached a deal to merge their streaming and television assets, with the joint venture valued at $8.5 billion including synergies. As part of the deal, Viacom18 would be merged into Disney Star with Disney holding a 36.84% stake in the combined entity, which would bring together assets such as linear television entertainment channels StarPlus, Colors TV and the Star Gold Network, sports channels Star Sports and Sports18 and the streaming services JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar with Nita Ambani serving as the chairperson of the joint venture, with Uday Shankar serving as vice chairperson with the deal giving 16.34% to Reliance and 46.82% to Viacom18, with the deal being expected to close sometime in late 2024 or early 2025 pending regulatory approval.[53][58][59]
In March 2024, it was reported that Paramount Global was looking to sell its 13.01% stake in Viacom18 to Reliance, which already owned a 73.91% share via TV18.[60] Although Bloomberg News reported that the deal was unlikely to close, the deal was confirmed a week later for $517 million, its closure subject to regulatory approval and the completion of the joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney. Paramount would, however, continue to license its content to the company.[61]
In August 2024, the National Company Law Tribunal approved a deal between Disney and Reliance Industries where JioCinema and Viacom18 would be merged into Digital18.[62] In November 2024, Disney and Reliance Industries agreed to merge Star India and Viacom18. The deal was reported to be valued at $8.5 billion.[63]
Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific was a Hong Kong–based commercial broadcasting company operating multiple specialty television channels. The company was founded in 1991 by Hong Kong businessman Richard Li.
StarPlus is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar. Its programming consists of family dramas, comedies, youth-oriented reality shows, shows on crime, and television films.
Star Movies is an Asian-based pay television channel owned by Disney Entertainment. Star Movies was originally launched in 1994 as a single channel broadcast across Asia, but it has regionalized into different localized channels since then. Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific have since rebranded some of the network's international feeds in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia as Fox Movies, but retains the Star Movies brand in the Middle East & South Asia.
Disney Branded Television is an American television production company and a unit of Disney General Entertainment Content which oversees development, production and acquisition of content geared towards children, teenagers and families for Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney Jr. and Disney XD. The unit also oversees Disney-branded unscripted series, documentaries and specials for Disney+ and the Disney channels.
Network18 Group is an Indian media conglomerate, based in Mumbai. It is owned by Reliance Industries. Rahul Joshi is the managing director, chief executive officer and group editor-in-chief of Network18 Group, and Adil Zainulbhai is the chairman of its board of directors.
National Geographic Wild is a global pay television network owned by National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27%). The channel primarily focuses on wildlife and natural history non-fiction programming. It is a sister network to National Geographic TV.
BabyTV is a multilingual, international television channel for babies, toddlers and preschoolers aged 4 or lower. In Israel, the channel is owned and operated by Talit Communications while The Walt Disney Company Limited controls ownership and operations in all other territories. The channel is headquartered in London with television distribution handled by Disney subsidiaries across the world. The channel first launched in 2003 in Israel and 2005 in the United Kingdom. BabyTV is distributed in over 100 countries, broadcasting in 18 languages. The channel broadcasts shows without television commercial interruptions. In the United States, the channel is distributed by Disney General Entertainment Content.
Viacom18 Media Private Limited is a formerly independent Indian media conglomerate, currently part of JioStar. It is a Joint venture between Reliance Industries, Network18 and Bodhi Tree Systems. The joint-venture had various channels and content production studios in India. Following merger of its assets with Disney Star, it continues to be largest shareholder in the newly formed merged entity.
Asianet is an Indian Malayalam language general entertainment pay television channel operated by Disney Star, a subsidiary of Disney India. It primarily telecasts programs such as serials, reality shows and Malayalam films. Asianet HD is the first High Definition (HD) television channel in Malayalam.
The Walt Disney Company India, also known as Disney India, is the Indian subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Nickelodeon is an Indian children's pay television channel based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is the Indian equivalent of the original American network and is owned by Disney Star, a joint venture between Disney India and Viacom18 under license from Paramount Global. Despite using the "Nickelodeon" branding, it does not air any content from the original channel in recent times as part of a localisation strategy; instead the original Nickelodeon content is only broadcast on the Nickelodeon HD+ channel. As of October 2020, Nickelodeon is the most watched children's channel in India.
Fox Sports Asia was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Star Sports available in Mainland China and South Korea. Originally launched in early 1990s as Star Sports and ESPN by Satellite Television Asian Region and ESPN International respectively, both parties agreed to combine their operations in Asia in October 1996. News Corporation took the full control of the venture in 2012, and relaunched the channels in two phases in January 2013 and August 2014, respectively.
Disney+ Hotstar is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance Industries, Viacom18 and Disney India.
Voot was an Indian subscription video-on-demand and over-the-top streaming service owned by Viacom18, a joint venture between Reliance Industries, Network18 and Viacom. The service was initially launched on 4 May 2016. It initially launched as an advertising-supported service, before introducing a subscription tier in 2020 under the Voot Select banner.
JioTV is an Indian streaming television service owned by Jio Platforms, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. JioTV offers more than 1000 live channels with 7 days of catch up content, as per the website.
The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company was announced on December 14, 2017, and was completed on March 20, 2019. Among other key assets, the acquisition included the 20th Century Fox film and television studios, U.S. cable channels such as FX, Fox Networks Group, a 73% stake in National Geographic Partners, Indian television broadcaster Star India, and a 30% stake in Hulu. Most remaining assets were not part of the deal and they were spun off into a new company called Fox Corporation on March 19, 2019. Other 21st Century Fox assets such as the Fox Sports Networks and Sky were divested and sold off to Sinclair and Comcast, respectively.
Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming media service owned and operated by Disney Streaming, the streaming division of Disney Entertainment, a major business segment of the Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television shows produced by Walt Disney Studios and Disney Television Studios, with dedicated content hubs for Disney's flagship brands; Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, ESPN, Hulu and Star, as well as showcasing original and exclusive films and television shows.
Star Sports Network is a group of Indian pay television sports channels owned by JioStar, The network currently holds rights of flagship tournaments like Indian Premier League, ICC Events, Premier League, ONE Championship, Wimbledon, Nepal Premier League etc.
JioCinema is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance Industries, Viacom18 and Disney India. the service was launched on 4th May 2016.
Star is a content hub within the Disney+ streaming service that launched on February 23, 2021. The hub is available in a subset of countries where Disney+ is operated, except the United States.
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