Disney Star shuts down English GECs; introduces nine new channels

Three years after considering shutting down its English general entertainment channel Star World, Disney Star is finally pulling the plug on its English GECs. Beginning on March 14, Disney Star will stop producing its English GECs, Star World, Star World HD, and Star World Premiere HD, decommissioning India’s 30-year-old English GEC.

Star removes English GECs

Star launched Star Plus as English GEC in 1992, and after 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 only three English GECs operating in India: Zee Café, Comedy Central, and Colors Infinity. From Tuesday midnight, the other networks from the Disney Star family going off air include Baby TV (HD), UTV HD, Star Sports 1 Marathi, and Star Sports 1 Bangla.

Facing issues from quite a time

For the past three years, the network has been preparing for this change. The New Tariff Order (NTO) 2.0’s tardy implementation, however, caused it to remain on hold.

English GECs have been facing difficulties for a while. Their problems started in 2019 with the implementation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) NTO.

It only got worse as more English television viewers switched to OTT platforms. 2020 saw the closure of AXN and AXN HD as well as the discontinuation of FYI TV18 on Network18 by Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI).

New Channels of Star 

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.

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