Star World, 8 other Disney Star channels to go off air

Disney Star will be taking its English general entertainment channels- Star World HD, Star World Premiere HD, Star World (SD)- off air from March 14, 2023. Launched in 2000, Star World is India's oldest English GEC.

The channels are among nine channels the network is shutting. It will also be launching nine channels on March 15.

UTV HD, Baby TV (HD), Star Sports 1 Marathi and Star Sports 1 Bangla will also stop broadcasting from midnight of Tuesday. UTV Action will be rebranded as Star Gold Thrills and UTV Movies will be rebranded as Star Gold Romance.

Meanwhile, it will be launching these new channels - Star Movies Select, Star Sports 1 Tamil HD, Star Sports 1 Telugu HD, Disney Channel HD, Star Gold 2 HD, Vijay Super HD and Asianet Movies HD.

The network has been planning this move for the last three years. However, it was kept on hold due to the delay in the implementation of New Tariff Order (NTO) 2.0.

The launch of Star Sports HD in Tamil and Telugu is well-timed for the Indian Premier League (IPL) to reach a larger audience base.

English GECs have been struggling for sometime now. Their woes began with the implementation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) NTO in 2019. It only worsened with the English television viewers shifting to OTT platforms. In 2020, Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) decided to shut AXN and AXN HD and Network18 discontinued FYI TV18.