Owned by ABP Group Audience share 88,746 (Jan 2017, ) Language Hindi Founded 1998 | Picture format 4:3 (576i, SDTV) Country India Owner ABP Group | |
 | ||
Launched 18 February 1998; 19 years ago (1998-02-18) | ||
ABP News is an Indian news channel owned by ABP Group.
History
STAR News was launched on 18 February 1998. From 2003 STAR News became a complete Hindi News Channel. It was the first bilingual (English - Hindi) news service and was initially run by STAR on its own with NDTV doing the production till 2003. But when the agreement with the NDTV expired in 2003, STAR News was transformed into a complete Hindi language news channel, part of STAR and ABP tie up.
In 2003, the contract with NDTV ended and STAR decided to run the channel on its own. However, the government introduced a guideline capping foreign equity in the News business to 26%. STAR then entered into a JV with The Ananda Bazar Patrika group to form a company called Media Content and Communications Services Pvt. Ltd. (MCCS) which ran the channel STAR News. STAR owned 26% in this JV while The Ananda Bazar Patrika group owned 74%.
On 16 April 2012, Anandabazar Patrika (ABP) Group announced that they would part ways, allowing the Rupert Murdoch-controlled company to retreat from the news business in India to focus on entertainment. With the divorce, the eight-year affiliation with the 'Star' brand came to an end. Media Content and Communications (MCCS), the company that owned and operated the news channels, said that after the split, Hindi news channel Star News would be named ABP News, Bengali news channel Star Ananda would become ABP Ananda and the Marathi news channel Star Majha would be called ABP Majha. A Punjabi language version of the channel called ABP Sanjha is popular in northern Punjabi audiences. Abp Sanjha was launched on 20 April 2014.