Star India

Before 1993

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. In early 90s, Star India included Star Plus (then an English-language entertainment channel), Prime Sports (later became Star Sports), MTV and Nickelodeon (through a tie up with Viacom), Star Movies and Zee TV (belonging to Subhash Chandra). Star TV was beamed out of Asiasat satellite.

In 1993, 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 1993 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"

After 1993

In 1995, Zee TV and Star signed an agreement to promote each other's content on their respective networks. Thus ads for Star programs began to appear on Zee and vice versa. An agreement with Subhash Chandra prohibited Star from creating Hindi-language programming, so Star relied mainly on English-language imported programming. Star was third in Indian market share (3%) behind Zee TV (12%) and Sony (11%). This agreement was however short-lived as Star's English-language entertainment channel Star Plus started broadcasting Hindi content. By 1997, Star Plus became a 100% Hindi-language entertainment channel and Star TV launched Star World a separate channel that broadcast content formerly shown by Star Plus. For four years until 1999, Star had losses of nearly US$500 million. Consequently, Murdoch revamped Star management; programming chief Sameer Nair decided to start creating Hindi-language programming to target "mass instead of class." Peter Mukerjea was Chief Executive Officer of STAR India from 1999 to 2007.

In August 2009, STAR Broadcasting Corporation revealed a restructure to its Asian broadcast businesses into three units – STAR India, STAR, and Fox International Channels Asia.

STAR India also manages News Corporation's interests in seven ventures including DTH operator Tata Sky; cable system Hathway, channel distributor Media Pro Enterprise, south Indian broadcast business of STAR Vijay, the film producor and distributor Fox Star Studios India and STAR CJ Alive Home Shopping.

STAR India entered into High Definition broadcasting on 15 April 2011 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.

Star CJ Alive (now ShopCJ)

Star CJ Alive (now ShopCJ) is an Indian television shopping channel which was started between Star India and CJ Group of South Korea in 2009. It is a 24/7 shopping channel which in its starting stage used STAR Utsav for hosting the television marketing programs in six-hour slots. In its initial years, the programs were aired in Hindi. Star CJ Alive and depends mainly on infomercials. On 14 November 2012 Star CJ Alive appointed Kenny Shin as CEO for India.

Business results

In August 2012 Business Line of The Hindu group reported that Star CJ Alive is claiming an 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 (52 Channels)

Star India currently provides the following entertainment channels.

STAR India Sports (10 Channels)

Star India currently provides the following sports channels.

Star India media channels

Star India does not contain any news channels. Star India sold Star News and other news channels to ABP News Network .

Availability

Apart from India, many of Star TV channels are also available in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives

National Sports Network in India

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 2018, International Cricket Council matches through 2023, the England and Wales Cricket Board matches through 2017, Cricket Australia matches through 2017, Federation International De Hockey through 2022, Wimbledon through 2022 and Bundesliga through 2020. In addition, STAR India has acquired digital rights for Indian Premier League through 2017. 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 2,500 crore.