Disney Star Private Limited is an Indian media conglomerate and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India.[1] It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Disney Star network runs more than 70 TV channels in eight languages, reaching out to 9 out of 10 cable and satellite TV homes in India.[2] The network reaches approximately 790 million viewers a month across India and more than 100 countries.[3] Disney Star generates more than 30,000 hours of content every year.[4] Disney Star is the largest television and entertainment network in India.
History
Founding
Star TV (Satellite Television Asian Region) was founded in 1990 as a joint venture between Hutchison Whampoa and Li Ka-Shing. It launched Hollywood English-language entertainment channels for Asian audiences.[5]
In 1992, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation purchased 63.6% of STAR for $525 million, 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.[7][8] Murdoch declared that:[9]
(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
In 1998, STAR News was launched as a dedicated news channel with content from NDTV.[13]
2001–2010
In 2001, Star India acquired South India based Vijay TV.[14] In 2003, Star India's deal with NDTV ended and Star News was made into a 24-hour news channel. Disney bought it in 2009 for $2 Million or 2 Cnt venture (JV) with Anand Bazar Patrika Group to comply with the regulations set for uplinking of news and current affairs channels by the Government of India.[citation needed] It subsequently exited from this joint venture in 2012. After the split the channel was renamed ABP News and operated by Anandabazar Patrika Group.[13]
In the same year, Star Affiliate and CJ Group of South Korea launched CJ Alive (later known as ShopCJ), a 24-hour Indian television shopping channel which 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.[19] This venture was called Star CJ.
21st Century Fox launched a film production and distribution business in India through Fox Star Studios India, an affiliate of Star India in the same year.[20]
2011-2017
In 2012, Star India acquired the BCCI Rights for India cricket for the period 2012 through 2018. ESPN was renamed Star Sports 4, Star Cricket was renamed Star Sports 3, Star Sports was renamed Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 2 kept its name. STAR Cricket HD and ESPN HD were renamed Star Sports HD1 and Star Sports HD2 respectively.[21][22][23][24][25]
In 2015, Star India launched its video-on-demand service, Hotstar (now Disney+ Hotstar) and forayed into online streaming.[26]
In 2015, Star India acquired broadcast businesses of Maa Television Pvt. Ltd to boost its presence in Telugu speaking markets where Star didn't have any presence before. By this acquisition, Star has a regional presence in the entire South Indian markets.[27]
In February 2017, Star India and global media conglomerate, TED, announced a new TV series, TED Talks India – Nayi Soch. Its programmes starred Bollywood actor Shahrukh 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.[28][29]
On 28 August 2017, Star India replaced its Hindi Entertainment channel Life OK with a free-to-air channel Star Bharat.[30]
On 5 September 2017, Star India won the global media rights to broadcast Indian Premier League (IPL) for 5 years beginning in 2018. The company bid INR 163475.0 million to secure the rights from the previous broadcaster, Sony Pictures Network.[31]
On 14 December 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced the acquisition of 21st Century Fox, which included Star India.[32]
2018–present
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 The Walt Disney Company (India) Private Limited.[33] 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.[34][35]
On 4 January 2019, Star TV shut down its television operations in USA for the promotion of its digital counterpart, Hotstar.[36]
On 20 March 2019, Star India became a subsidiary of Disney India as the deal was Open. Now, Disney India owns UTV and Star India TV channels.[citation needed]
On 30 December 2020, Disney announced that the Star branding would be replaced with Utsav from 1 February in the Netherlands,[37] 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.[38]
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 originally planned by 30 November 2021 (although the Star Movies India networks, alongside Disney International HD will be effected). 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 will replace UTV, alongside the rebranding of UTV Movies and UTV Action as Star Gold Romance and Star Gold Thrills. Star Movies Select HD, Star Movies Hindi, Star Movies Tamil will also launch an SD simulcast, becoming the first niche premium English movie channel in India to do so.[39] But the planning wasn't take place and it was postponed 'til further notice, caused by the delay of TRAI's new tariff rules.[40]
On 14 April 2022, The Walt Disney Company India announced that Star India would rebranded to Disney Star.[41]
Business results
In August 2012, Business Line of The Hindu group reported that STAR CJ Alive is claiming average sale of products worth Rs. 9.5 million on week days and Rs. 12 million on weekends.[42] 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.[43] 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.[44]
STAR India Entertainment provides 51 channels while STAR India Sports provides 17 channels.
Novi Digital Entertainment is a parent company of Disney+ Hotstar and it's a subsidiary of Disney Star.
In January 2015, Star India launched Hotstar, a mobile and online entertainment OTT platform owned by its affiliate, Novi Digital Entertainment. The platform features content in 9 Indian languages and broadcasts sporting events.[49]
In January 2019, Star India shut down its linear TV services in South America, United States, North America, and Canada and shifted all services to Hotstar USA.[36]
In April 2020, the service merged with Disney+ in India forming Disney+ Hotstar. Hotstar operates independently and coexists with Disney+ in Canada and U.S.,[50] since it's launched on 4 September 2017; The United Kingdom on 13 September 2018;[51] and Singapore on 4 November 2020, prior to Disney+ in the country.[52]
On 31 August 2021, Disney announced that it will phase out Hotstar in the US and move all contents into Hulu and ESPN+. It expects that the service will be shut down in the US by late 2022,[53] 'til it takes earlier place back on 30 November 2021.[54]
National Sports Network in India
The STAR sports group planned to build a national sports network in India. The plan included broadcasting in Indian languages. ESPN was renamed Star Sports 4, Star Cricket was renamed Star Sports 3, Star Sports was renamed Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 2 kept its name. Star Sports Telugu, Star Cricket HD and ESPN HD renamed Star Sports HD1 and Star Sports HD2 respectively. Star Sports 3 would be predominantly a Hindi-only channel. STAR planned 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 were also planned to be launched by STAR. In football, Barclays Premier League is also considered for regional broadcasting by STAR.[55]
₹120 billion (US$1.5 billion) (FY 2021)
