Star India

Star TV (Satellite Television Asian Region) was founded in 1990 as a joint venture between Hutchison Whampoa and Li Ka-Shing. It was launched as a Pan-Asian beam-to-air Hollywood English-language entertainment channel for Asian audiences.[5]

In 1990, Star TV included Star Plus (then an English-language entertainment channel), Prime Sports, Channel V, Star Movies.[5][6]

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

Between 1994 and 1998, Star India was launched, later launched Star Movies, Channel V, and Star News with a limited Hindi offering.[10][11][12]

In 1998, STAR News was launched as a dedicated news channel with content from NDTV.[13]

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. And it entered into a joint 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. It subsequently exited from this joint venture in 2012. After the split the channel was renamed to ABP News and operated by Anandabazar Patrika Group.[15][16]

In 2004, Star One was launched as a Hindi content channel.[17] In 2008, Star Jalsha, a Bengali language entertainment channel and Star Pravah, a Marathi language entertainment channel were launched.[18][19]

In 2009, Star India acquired Trivandrum, India based media conglomerate Asianet Communications Limited which served Malayalam language content.[20] In August 2009, the Star Group restructured its Asian broadcast businesses into three units – Star India, Star, and Fox International Channels Asia.[21]

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.[22] 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.[23]

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 to Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 2 kept its name. STAR Cricket HD and ESPN HD were renamed to Star Sports HD1 and Star Sports HD2 respectively.[24][25][26][27][28]

In 2015, Star India launched its video-on-demand service, Hotstar (now Disney+ Hotstar) and forayed into online streaming.[29]

In 2015, Star India has acquired broadcast businesses of Maa Television Pvt. Ltd to boost its presence in Telugu speaking markets where Star doesn't have any presence before. By this acquisition Star has regional presence in the entire South Indian markets.[30]

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.[31][32]

On 28 August 2017, Star India replaced its Hindi Entertainment channel Life OK with a free-to-air channel Star Bharat.[33]

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 16,347.50 crore to secure the rights from the previous broadcaster, Sony Pictures Network.[34]

On 14 December 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced the acquisition of 21st Century Fox, which included Star India.[35]

On 13 December 2018, Disney announced Uday Shankar who serves as chairman of Star India will lead Disney's Asian operations and will 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.[36] 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.[37][38]

On 4 January 2019, Star TV shut down its television operations in USA for promotion of its digital counterpart, Hotstar.[39]

On 20 March 2019, Star India became a subsidiary of Disney India as the deal was closed. Now, Star India owns UTV and Disney India TV Channels.

On 30 December 2020, Disney announced that the Star branding will be replaced with Utsav from February 1st in the Netherlands,[40] with the Utsav Gold, Utsav Plus and Utsav Bharat branding launching in the UK on 22 January 2021.[41]