TORONTO, and MUMBAI, India, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- STAR, a wholly owned
subsidiary of News Corporation (Nasdaq: NWS) and Asia's leading media and
Entertainment Company has launched four top-rated South Asian STAR channels on
Rogers Cable, the leading cable operator in Canada. This will be followed by
the launch of three STAR Mandarin-language services later this month.
The channels already launched include three Hindi-language services (general
entertainment channel STAR ONE, Bollywood movie channel STAR India GOLD and
leading news channel STAR India NEWS) as well as popular Tamil entertainment
language channel, STAR VIJAY. These four channels compliment programming from
India's leading Hindi general entertainment channel, STAR India PLUS, which
has been available on ATN's services in Canada since 2006.
Later this month, three popular Mandarin-language channels from STAR Greater
China's bouquet will also make their Canadian debut. The channels consist of
STAR CHINESE CHANNEL (general entertainment), STAR CHINESE MOVIES 2 (Chinese
films) and Taiwan's trend setting music and lifestyle channel, CHANNEL [V]
Taiwan.
"After attracting a strong following among the Asian diaspora in the U.S.,
we're thrilled to partner with Rogers to launch our top-rated channels for
viewers in Canada," said David Wisnia, STAR's Senior Vice President of
Distribution, Sales and Marketing and head of STAR's North American and
European offices. "This launch marks the debut of 24-hour STAR channels in
Canada and makes STAR the largest provider of foreign television services to
Rogers' viewers. Now Canadian audiences will have seven new 24-hour channels
from which to find fresh favourites, to entertain, inform and inspire."
"Rogers has long been committed to delivering the most variety and choice of
multicultural programming to Canadians," said David Purdy, Vice President of
TV and Video Product Management, Rogers Cable. "The South Asian and Chinese
communities are extremely important to us and we are pleased to be delivering
even more valued content to our customers."
Shan Chandrasekar, the president and CEO of ATN, added that ATN, STAR and
Rogers share a common vision of delivering variety and value to multi-cultural
communities across Canada. "We are proud to sponsor these highly popular STAR
services in Canada, as their top programs attract some of the biggest
audiences in Asia."
The channels will be available as part of Rogers' multicultural package
offerings. For more information, consumers are encouraged to visit
www.rogers.com/multicultural, www.asiantelevision.com or call 1-888-764-3771
(Rogers) or ATN at 905-836-6460.
STAR is a leading media and entertainment company in Asia. STAR broadcasts
over 60 television services in 13 languages to more than 300 million viewers
across 53 Asian countries. STAR and its joint venture channels cover all
genres including general entertainment (Star Plus, Xing Kong, Star Chinese
Channel, Star World, Star One, Star Utsav, Star Jalsha, Star Pravah, Vijay,
Asianet, Asianet Plus, Sitara, Suvarna, antv, Phoenix Chinese Channel), sports
(ESPN, Star Sports, Star Cricket), movies (Star Chinese Movies, Star Chinese
Movies 2, Star Gold, Star Movies), music (Channel [V]), and news and current
affairs (Star News, Star Ananda, Star Majha, Phoenix InfoNews Channel).
STAR controls over 20,000 hours of Indian and Chinese programming and also
owns the world's largest contemporary Chinese film library, with more than 600
titles, featuring superstars including Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat and Bruce
Lee. In partnership with leading companies, STAR businesses extend to filmed
entertainment, television production, cable systems and distribution,
direct-to-home services, terrestrial TV broadcasting, wireless and digital
services. STAR is a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corporation.
www.startv.com
SOURCE STAR
Sagnik Roy, +1-310-369-8199, sagnik.roy@us.startv.com
