Star Sports Network

Star Sports Network (previously known as ESPN STAR Sports or ESS) is a sports broadcasting network owned by 21st Century Fox through its subsidiaries STAR TV and Fox Networks Group. It was formed as ESPN STAR Sports, a joint venture between ESPN Inc. (jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation, and through ESPN International, which it directly owns,) and News Corporation in 1994. News Corporation acquired Disney's stake in the company in 2012 and Manu Sawhney was replaced by Peter Hutton as the CEO.^[1]

It operates 25 STAR Sports branded Television networks and 3 broadband sports networks throughout Asia, transmitting in 5 languages (English, Cantonese, Hindi, Korean and Mandarin). It has also launched sports channels in Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages after getting license from Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India^[2]The networks broadcast various local and international sporting events. STAR Sports launched STAR Sports Thailand on Monday 4 August 2008 exclusively for Thai viewers.

ESPN STAR Sports also has Asia's leading Events Management team that has been successfully staging large-scale sporting events across Asia. The event management team is a completely integrated events group that manages concept creation, sponsorship, marketing, PR, TV broadcast, operations, and logistics for clients. Events currently in their portfolio include the X Games Asia, 9 Ball Tour, KL World 5's Futsal, Cartier Polo, Formula Drift Singapore, Nations Cup Netball, Indian Hockey League and World Pool Championship. In 2012, ESPN STAR Sports was the official broadcaster of 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

History

ESPN STAR is famed for their being Asia's largest broadcaster of the English FA Premier League with commentators like John Dykes and a host of former Premier league players as guests and pundits on the shows.^[3]

ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) via its STAR Cricket channel was the official broadcaster of the 2011 Cricket World Cup Final experienced all-time high viewership (67.6 million only on Cable and satellite) and TRPs, and had raised ad rates for 10 second slots during the finals to ₹2 million (US$31,000), prior to the finals.^[4][5][6]

List of channels

Screenshot from ESPN Asia with the new Station ID

Screenshot from ESPN Philippines with the new Station ID

Operating channels

Defunct channels

Digital platforms

• Hotstar (available in India)
• StarSports.com (available in India)
• ESPN Player (formerly available in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia. Replaced by Fox Sports Play)
• Mobile ESPN (replaced by Fox Sports Mobile)

Programs broadcast by STAR Sports

It is important to note that broadcast rights for various sports properties contain territorial limitations and in a lot of instances, the rights indicated below may not pertain to all territories in which STAR Sports operates.

Multi-sport event

• X Games (X-Games, Winter X Games, X Games Asia, X Games Brazil and Winter X Games Europe)
• Winter Olympic Games (except for Philippines)
• 2012 Summer Olympics (also except for Philippines)

Cricket

• ICC events from 2007–2023
• Cricket World Cup
• ICC World Twenty20
• Twenty20 Champions League
• International Cricket in Australia
• Big Bash League in Australia
• Ryobi One Day Cup in Australia
• Sheffield Shield in Australia
• International Cricket in England
• Liverpool Victoria County Championship In England
• Friends Provident t20 In England
• Clydesdale Bank 40 In England
• International Cricket in India
• Domestic cricket in India
• Bangladesh Premier League in Bangladesh
• International cricket in Bangladesh
• 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier and ICC Development Tournaments consisting of Associate/Affiliate members

Motorsports

• Formula One (except for China)
• Superleague Formula (except for Malaysia)
• GP2 Series
• GP3 Series
• IndyCar Series
• FIM Motocross World Championship (except for Malaysia)
• Superbike World Championship (except for Malaysia)
• FIA World Touring Car Championship (only for highlights)
• FIM S1 Supermoto World Championship (except for Malaysia)
• MotoGP
• GP2 Asia Series
• V8 Supercars
• Asian Festival of Speed
• Rolex Sports Car Series
• FIA World Endurance Championship
• Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (only for India)
• Dakar Rally (every January)

Baseball

• Major League Baseball

Basketball

• NBA (except for China, India and Hong Kong)
• Super Basketball League (only for Taiwan)
• William Jones Cup
• Asean Basketball League (except for China, Hong Kong, India & Taiwan)
• WNBA (except for China, Philippines, India and Hong Kong)

Extreme sports

• X Games
• X Games Asia

Association football

• FIFA Confederations Cup (only for Indian subcontinent)
• Premier League (only for Indian subcontinent)
• FA Cup^[7]
• FA Community Shield^[8]
• England International matches^[9]
• Spanish La Liga^[10] (except for Hong Kong, Thailand & Vietnam)
• J1 League
• AFC Champions League
• Asian Cup
• Serie A (only for Indian subcontinent)
• Bundesliga (only for China and the Indian subcontinent)
• NextGen Series
• S-League (only Highlights)
• Divisi 2 Indonesia
• International Champions Cup

Tennis

• Wimbledon
• French Open
• International Premier Tennis League

Golf

• PGA EuroPro Tour
• Masters Tournament
• U.S. Open Championship
• The Open Championship
• PGA Grand Slam of Golf
• Asian Tour (only for India)
• OneAsia Tour
• Ladies European Tour (only for Highlights)
• U.S. Women's Open
• LPGA Tour (only for Taiwan)
• PGA Championship (only for Taiwan)
• Ryder Cup (only for Taiwan)
• HSBC Champions (only for Southeast Asia & Taiwan)

Mixed martial arts

• ONE Championship
• Super Fight League

News

• SportsCenter Asia
• SportsCenter India
• SportsCenter Hong Kong
• SportsCenter Malaysia
• SportsCenter Taiwan
• SportsCenter Espresso
• Nokia Football Crazy
• Engine Block
• Score Tonight

See also

• ESPN
• ESPN International
• ESPN Asia
• ESPN Philippines
• STAR Sports
• STAR Cricket
• ESPNSTAR.com
• ESPN STAR Sports Media Guide

References

External links

• Official site of ESPN STAR Sports
• ESPN STAR China
• ESPN STAR Hong Kong
• ESPN STAR Taiwan
• ESPN STAR Malaysia
• ESPN STAR Indonesia
• Official site of SBS ESPN(in Korean)(for South Korea)