Disney Star has finally decided that it will be shutting down its English general entertainment channels.
This decision has come after the channel’s announcement about the same three years ago!
This marks the end of a 30-year-old English GEC in India.
Disney Shuts Down Star World in India
It was June 22, 2020, when news was that Star World would be canceled due to problems with the New Tariff Order. A lack of NTO clarity, however, caused the decision to discontinue a few specialist channels to be put off.
Beginning on March 14, Disney Star will stop producing its English GECs, Star World, Star World HD, and Star World Premiere HD.
Star launched Star Plus as English GEC in 1992, and when Star Plus changed to Hindi GEC in 2000, Star World was introduced to India. AXN, AXN HD, and Network18’s FYI TV18 from Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) were pulled off the air in May 2020.
There are now just three English GECs operating in India: Zee Café, Comedy Channel, and Colors Infinity.
On Tuesday from midnight forward, the other networks from the Disney Star family coming off air include Baby TV (HD), UTV HD, Star Sports 1 Marathi, and Star Sports 1 Bangla.
The network revealed that Star Gold Romance, Star Gold Thrills, 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 will be among the nine new channels it will begin airing on March 15.
Television Broadcasters Switched Off Signals To Cable Operators
In February, we reported that most of the television broadcasters have switched off signals to cable operators, going off air for nearly 45 million subscribers in India.
This list of broadcasters includes service providers like Disney Star, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Sony Pictures Networks India.
The move seems to be impacted by the fact that the television broadcasters have increased their bouquet and popular channels’ prices between 10-15%, under the new amendments to the tariff order, or NTO 3.0.
With this move, the cable operators will feel a pinch from their low-income consumers, especially in small towns, and are not willing to implement the same.
