Disney Star facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Disney Star

Formerly	Star India (1990–2022)
Type	Subsidiary
Traded as	Disney Star
Industry	Media conglomerate
Founded	1 August 1990; 34 years ago (1990-08-01)
Founder	Star TV
Headquarters	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Area served	International
Key people	K. Madhavan Sanjay Jain
Services	Television broadcasting Films
Revenue	₹120 billion (US$2.0 billion) (FY 2021)
Owner	Hutchison Whampoa (1990–1993) News Corporation (1993–2013) 21st Century Fox (2013–2019) The Walt Disney Company (2019–present)
Parent	Star TV (1990–2014) Disney India (2019–present)
Subsidiaries	Star Studios Disney+ Hotstar

Disney Star, once known as Star India, is a big Indian media company. It is owned by Disney India, which is part of The Walt Disney Company. Disney Star is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

This company runs over 70 TV channels in eight different languages. These channels reach almost 9 out of 10 homes with cable and satellite TV in India. They also reach viewers in more than 100 other countries. Disney Star creates over 30,000 hours of TV shows and movies every year. It is the largest TV and entertainment network in India.

About Disney Star's Journey

How Disney Star Started

Star TV (which stands for Satellite Television Asian Region) began in 1990. It was a partnership between Hutchison Whampoa and Li Ka-Shing. Their goal was to offer Hollywood English-language shows to people in Asia.

In 1990, Star TV launched its first five channels. These included Star Plus (which was an English entertainment channel back then), Star Chinese Channel, Prime Sports, Channel V, and BBC World Service Television.

In 1992, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation bought most of Star India. They bought the rest of the company in 1993. Murdoch believed that satellite TV could help people in countries with strict rules get information. Between 1994 and 1998, Star India launched more channels. These included Star Movies, Channel V, and Star News. They also started offering some Hindi shows on Star Plus for Indian viewers.

Growing Through the Years

In 2001, Star India bought Vijay TV, a channel based in South India. In 2003, Star News became a 24-hour news channel. Star India later left its partnership for the news channel in 2012. The channel was then renamed ABP News.

In 2004, Star One was launched, showing Hindi content. In 2008, they launched Star Jalsha, a Bengali entertainment channel, and Star Pravah, a Marathi entertainment channel.

In 2009, Star India bought Asianet Communications. This company offered shows in the Malayalam language. Also in 2009, the Star Group changed how its Asian TV businesses were set up. They created three main parts: Star India, Star China Media, and Fox International Channels Asia.

In the same year, Star India also started a film company called Fox Star Studios India. This company makes and distributes movies in India.

Key Milestones and Changes

In April 2012, Star India won the rights to show Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) cricket matches until 2018. This deal included showing matches of the India national cricket team and other local tournaments.

On 6 November 2013, Star India changed the names of its Star Sports channels. For example, the main Star Sports channel became Star Sports 1. Other channels like Star Cricket and ESPN were also renamed.

In February 2015, Star India launched its streaming service called Hotstar. This platform offers movies and shows in 9 Indian languages. It also broadcasts live sports events. Star also bought the TV channels of Maa Television Pvt. Ltd. This helped them grow in areas where people speak Telugu.

In February 2017, Star India and TED announced a new TV show. It was called TED Talks India – Nayi Soch. This show featured famous speakers, including Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan. They gave talks in Hindi, just like the regular TED talks.

On 28 August 2017, Star India replaced its Hindi entertainment channel Life OK with a new channel called Star Bharat.

On 5 September 2017, Star India won the rights to broadcast the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches. This was a five-year deal starting in 2018. The deal included rights for Star Sports on TV and Hotstar for online streaming.

On 14 December 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced that it planned to buy 21st Century Fox. This included Star India, which was part of 21st Century Fox.

Becoming Part of Disney

In 2018, Star India renewed its deal to show BCCI cricket matches until March 2023.

On 13 December 2018, Disney announced that Uday Shankar, who was the chairman of Star India, would lead Disney's operations in Asia. He also became the new chairman of Disney India. This made Disney India a fully owned part of The Walt Disney Company. On 27 August 2018, the channel Star Life was launched in Africa. It showed Indian Hindi series dubbed in English.

On 4 January 2019, Star TV stopped its TV channels in the USA. This was to promote its online service, Hotstar.

On 20 March 2019, Star India officially became a part of Disney India. This happened after Disney completed its big deal to buy 21st Century Fox. Now, Disney India owns both the UTV Software Communications channels and the Star India channels.

In April 2020, The Walt Disney Company combined Hotstar with Disney+ in India. This created Disney+ Hotstar. Hotstar also continued to work on its own in Canada, the US, the UK, and Singapore.

On 30 December 2020, Disney announced that the Star channel names would change to Utsav in some countries. For example, Utsav Gold, Utsav Plus, and Utsav Bharat launched in the UK in January 2021.

On 31 August 2021, Disney announced that Hotstar would be phased out in the US. All its content would move to Hulu and ESPN+. This change happened by November 30, 2021.

On 18 October 2021, Disney and Star said they would stop showing English general entertainment channels in India. This meant closing Star World and Star World Premiere. However, the Star Movies channels would still be available. They also planned to expand the Star Gold brand with new movie channels. These changes were delayed until March 2023.

On 14 April 2022, Disney India officially changed the name of Star India to Disney Star. On 27 May 2022, Fox Star Studios was renamed Star Studios. This was part of removing the "Fox" name from studios that Disney had bought from 21st Century Fox.

In 2023, Disney Star Channels were relaunched in the U.S.

Future Plans: Joining Forces

In July 2023, The Walt Disney Company started looking at options for its businesses in India. This included possibly selling them or joining with another company. They talked with Reliance Industries and other big companies.

In December 2023, Disney and Reliance signed an agreement to combine their businesses. Reliance would own 51% of the new company, and Disney would own 49%. A part of Viacom18 would join with Disney Star.

In February 2024, Disney and Reliance made a final deal to merge their streaming and TV channels. The new company would bring together many popular channels. These include StarPlus, Colors TV, the Star Gold Network, and sports channels like Star Sports and Sports18. It would also combine streaming services like JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. Nita Ambani will be the chairperson of this new company. The deal is expected to be completed in late 2024 or early 2025.

In March 2024, it was reported that Paramount Global would sell its share in Viacom18 to Reliance. This deal would happen after the joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney is complete. Paramount will still allow its content to be used by the new company.

Channels You Can Watch

Channels in India

Channels Around the World

Channels Coming Soon

Channels That Changed or Closed

See also

A friendly robot for kids!

• Star (Disney+)
• Fox Networks Group
  • Fox Networks Group Middle East
  • Disney Branded Television
• Disney Entertainment