After launching regional sports channels in Hindi and Tamil, Star India is all set to launch Star Sports 1 Kannada on 16 November. The Kannada sports channels will replace the broadcaster’s Hindi music channel, Channel V, which will be discontinued from the same date.
Star Sports 1 Kannada’s launch coincides with Indian Super League (ISL) season 4, which kicks-off on 17 November. The league featuring 10 teams will be the first longer season with 95 games.
Like its other regional siblings, Star Sports 1 Kannada will be the home of India cricket and local leagues like Pro Kabaddi, ISL and Karnataka Premier League (KPL), the local version of Indian Premier League (IPL). The broadcaster is also in the process of acquiring local properties for the new channel.
“We are going step by step. Our Tamil channel has been a huge success which is why we are launching a second regional channel in South. Star Sports 1 Kannada will also have a local flavour to it in terms of content and programming,” a Star India official told TelevisionPost.com on condition of anonymity.
Star India has long been a champion of broadcasting live sports in regional languages to increase sports viewing in the country.
In fact, talking to TelevisionPost.com in 2013, Star India’s Sanjay Gupta had said that a big part of Star’s cricket journey will lie in language feeds. “In the coming two years we are looking at channels in Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, and Kannada,” Gupta had said.
Star to launch Kannada sports channel on 16 Nov; Channel V to be discontinued | TelevisionPost.com