STAR India gets uplinking licence for three new sports channels

Uplinking refers to uploading the signal onto the satellite from where it is then relayed to various telecast destinations

Broadcasting network STAR India has acquired the uplinking and downlinking licence for 10 sports channels in India, of which three are new - ESPN HD, Star Sports Highlights, and Star Cricket Asia.

According to data filed by the information and broadcasting ministry, the network can now uplink and downlink sports channels from India, something which STAR India was doing from Singapore and Hong Kong till now.

Currently, STAR India operates six sports channels in India - Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 3, Star Sports 4, Star Sports HD1, and Star Sports HD2.

All these channels are operational under the existing downlinking licences.

Uplinking means uploading the signal onto the satellite from where it is relayed to various telecast destinations. These destinations then downlink (download) the signal and relay to the television homes. Until now, STAR India was only able to downlink signals to seven sports channels in India - six of them were active and one downlink licence remained dormant (registered in the name of ESPN).

Upon the completion of the necessary formalities, the network will surrender its downlinking licences to the information and broadcasting ministry.

Over the past year, the channel has re-branded its sports bouquet to Star Sports brand after Fox bought out Disney’s stake in the joint venture ESPN Star Sports in 2012.

Star India’s strategy has been to invest in non-cricket sports and provide non-English feeds to its viewers. Of the six sports channels currently on-air, one is dedicated to Hindi commentary (Star Sports 3). Earlier, the network had expressed intentions to launch more regional feed channels, although a comment from Star India was not available at the time of filing this report.

According to data filed on the information and broadcasting ministry website, apart from the two HD channels, all the channels have been registered for any language as permitted under the Constitution of India including English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, and Kashmiri, among others.