Star Movies
Star Movies is an Indian pay television network owned by Star TV. It was originally launched as a single channel broadcast across Asia, but it was regionalised into different localised channels since then. Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific have since rebranded some of the network's international feeds in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia as Fox Movies, but retains the Star Movies brand in Mainland China. Star India continues to operate the Indian feed of the network as a channel specialised in Western films, while the Middle Eastern feed, operated by Fox Networks Group Middle East, co-exists with Fox Movies.
| Star Movies | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Launched | 1 May 1994 |
| Owned by | Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific Star India (India) Fox Networks Group Middle East (Middle East and North Africa) |
| Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to letterboxed 576i for the SDTV feed) |
| Language | English Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan) |
| Broadcast area | India Nepal Middle East and North Africa China Taiwan (HD only) |
| Replaced by | Fox Movies Premium (2012–2017; Southeast Asia) Fox Movies (2017; Southeast Asia, Taiwan) |
| Sister channel(s) | Star World Star Gold Star Chinese Movies Fox Movies (MENA) Fox (Arabia) Fox Action Movies Fox Family Movies Fox Movies FX Fox News National Geographic Nat Geo People Nat Geo Wild National Geographic Abu Dhabi Channel V BabyTV |
Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| Tata Sky | Channel 353 (HD) Channel 354 (SD) |
| Dish TV | Channel 241 (SD) Channel 548 (HD) |
| CBTV (China) | Channel 307 |
| OSN (MENA) | Channel 37 (HD) |
| Sun Direct TV | Channel 97 (SD) Channel 968 (HD) |
| Dish Home (Nepal) | Channel 926 (HD) |
| Airtel digital TV | Channel 243 (SD) Channel 244 (HD) |
| Videocon D2H | Channel 241 (SD) Channel 943(HD) |
| beIN (MENA) | Channel 65 (HD) |
| Dialog TV (Sri Lanka) | Channel 79 (Test) |
| Cable | |
| United Communication Service (Bangladesh) | Channel 12 |
| Kerala Vision Digital TV | Channel 375 (SD) Channel 869 (HD) |
| Southern Networks (Pakistan) | Channel 46 |
| DHA Teleman (Pakistan) | Channel 27 |
| Hathway | Channel 140 |
| Asianet Digital | Channel 463 (SD) Channel 830 (HD) |
| Island TV (Addu City) | Channel 18 |
| Digi Cable (Hyderabad) | Channel 200 |
| Sreedevi digital (Visakhapatnam) | Channel 301 |
| Digicon (Coimbatore) | Channel 500 (SD) Channel 936 (HD) |
| Ask Cable Vision (Sri Lanka) | Channel 51 |
| IPTV | |
| Broad TV (Nepal) | Channel 464 |
| PTCL Smart TV (Pakistan) | Channel 72 |
| PEO TV (Sri Lanka) | Channel 28 |
History
STAR Movies was split up from STAR Plus in 1994 which usually aired movies in the early years of STAR TV from 1991 to 1994. At launch, its programming line up was consisted of both Hollywood and Chinese films and catered to pan-Asian audiences.
As Star TV planned to remove BBC World Service Television from its channel line up for Northeast Asia by mid-April 1994, the company planned to replace it with a Chinese-language film channel.[1] Star Movies would focus on Western world films from then on. Star TV have since regionalised the channel's operation.
A localised feed intended for the Philippines was launched on 1 January 2010. Four months later, a high-definition channel, Star Movies HD, was launched. A video on demand channel was also launched on 16 September of that same year.[2]
On 1 January 2012, Star Movies was rebranded as Fox Movies Premium and available in Hong Kong and most of Southeast Asia.
On 10 June 2017, the Philippine feed of the channel was rebranded as Fox Movies Philippines.
On 1 November 2017, the Vietnamese feed of Star Movies was rebranded as Fox Movies Vietnam.[3]
Programming
Star Movies has first-run contracts for movies distributed by Disney (20th Century Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios), Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and DreamWorks and sub-run contracts for movies from Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. for countries where Star Movies is available. It also features movies from other movie distributors including: Lions Gate Entertainment, Summit Entertainment and The Weinstein Company.Star Movies mainly airs Disney Movies during day.
Operating channels
Star Movies Asia
Star Movies International was formerly broadcast in Southeast Asia and China as a single, ad-free channel.
As of 2017, Star Movies Asia is limited to subscribers in China due to the gradual rebrand of the channel's localised feeds to Fox Movies Premium.
Star Movies Vietnam used to air a program called "Thảm đỏ (Red Carpet)" to introduce the movies which are scheduled to broadcast on the channel, all in Vietnamese language and hosted by Vietnamese presenters.
After the rebranding of Star Movies to Fox Movies Premium, due to high subscription fees in Nepal and Sri Lanka, Star India found it viable to officially replace ad-free Fox Movies Premium Southeast Asia with the ad-supported Star Movies India in those countries.
Star Movies India
The channel is distributed in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is available on all subscription-television providers in the countryand as part of the Star India bouquet.
Star Movies MENA
Star Movies Midde East and Africa features a hardcoded Arabic-language subtitle track (except for Israel). The channel is available on both OSN, myHD and beIN.
Star Movies Taiwan
An ad-supported feed of Star Movies was launched for Taiwan specifically. It was the most localised feed of the television network, since most voice-overs in promotions for up-coming movies were done in Mandarin Chinese. The SD feed of the channel was rebranded as Fox Movies Taiwan on 18 January 2018, while the HD feed still retains is independent programming and branding.
Star Movies Philippines
Star Movies was launched on 30 November 2009 in the Philippines as an ad-supported channel. It used to simulcast with the Southeast Asian and Chinese feeds until 31 December 2009, when a localised feed was launched specifically for the Philippines. After the rebranding of Star Movies Asia as Fox Movies Premium on 1 January 2012 in most of Southeast Asia, the Philippine feed remained broadcasting until 10 June 2017 when it followed suit.
Star Movies Action
It was launched in 2 June 2013 only in India, replacing Fox Action Movies (not to be confused with its Southeast Asian counterpart) after its temporal closedown on 11 May 2013. The channel airs action- and horror-themed movies . In 2017, the channel was shutdown.[4][5]
References
- "Murdoch's STAR TV to drop BBC" UPI March 22, 1994
- STAR Movies HD in Asiasat 5 retrieved via http://www.lyngsat.com 05-26-2010
- FOX Movies và FOX Life chính thức lên sóng truyền hình MobiTV retrieved via http://mobitv.hanoi.vn 10-20-2017
- Star Movies Action to replace Fox Action Movies retrieved via http://www.bestmediainfo.com 10-20-2013
- Star India gears-up for more action; All set to launch Star Movies Action retrieved via http://www.adgully.com 10-22-2013