ABP News

STAR News was launched on 18 February 1998. From 2003 STAR News became a complete channel. It was the first bilingual (English – Hindi) news service and was initially run by STAR India on its own with NDTV doing the production until 2003. When the agreement with the NDTV expired in 2003, STAR News was transformed into a complete Hindi language news channel, part of the 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 joint venture 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 joint venture while the Ananda Bazar Patrika group owned 74%.[2]

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.[3] With the split, 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.[4] A Punjabi-language version of the channel called ABP Sanjha is popular with northern Punjabi audiences.[5] A Gujarati-language version called ABP Asmita was launched on 1 January 2016.

In November 2016, Avinash Pandey became COO of ABP News Network.[6]

All of ABP's channels (including ABP News) were gradually revamped throughout the second half of 2020, beginning with the renaming of parent subsidiary ABP News Network to ABP Network in July 2020.[7] A further rebranding, which affected the channels themselves, took place in the morning of 16 December 2020, with simplified and more modern logos and a new graphics package developed by Saffron Brand Consultants, which is standardized for all ABP Network channels.[8] Additionally, ABP News upgraded its production facilities and transmission output to 1080i HDTV, and launched a full-time HD feed coinciding with the revamp, with its SD feed switching to a widescreen picture format as a straight downscaled simulcast of the HD feed (ABP News had launched an test HD feed in February, exclusively on Hotstar and on the channel's digital platforms, presenting a straight simulcast of the SD feed with the 4:3 picture format stretched to fit the 16:9 format).[9] Although ABP Network's regional language channels also received standardized new logos and graphic packages, they remain broadcasting in 4:3 SDTV.

Former host Punya Prasun Bajpai said that when the channel aired a program where he was skeptical of the performance of one of the Modi projects to aid poor farmers in the show Masterstroke. The satellite broadcasting of the show had been interrupted every time it was transmitted.[10][11] Former employees reported that the channel owners had pressured the host, Punya Prasun Bajpai, to quit the company and the issues had immediately stopped. Another host, Abhisar Sharma, who challenged Modi's public safety on live television, was removed off of the channel that same day. He also said he was under pressure to leave.[12]

• Official website