Star India starts test transmission of Star Sports 3 HD

Star India has started the test transmission of its upcoming HD channel Star Sports 3 HD. The test transmission started a week ago on Asiasat 7 satellite at 105°e. It is currently being tested on 3860 V 28100 transponder.

Star Sports 3 HD will be the HD version of Star Sports 3 which is currently available only as SD feed. Star Sports currently has the HD feed for all of its SD channels except for Star Sports 3. Star Sports 3 HD will go on air from 1st February 2020 along with Vijay Music, Star Gold 2, Star Gold 2 HD and Star Movies Select SD channels launching on the same day.

The channel will be available to the subscribers at Rs 5 per month on an a-la-carte basis and will be the cheapest Star Sports HD channel. The channel will also be available in most of the Star network’s HD bouquets. It will be available in around 75 HD bouquets with only a few HD bouquets not carrying it.

The broadcaster is likely to have received permission from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to launch Star Sports 3 HD. The Ministry’s database was however yet to updated with Star Sports 3 HD at the time of writing this article.

Star had last year re-launched Star Sports 3 in India. Star Sports 3 had shutdown in 2017 with other sports channels replacing it. Star’s sports channel portfolio will have 18 sports channels from 1st February 2020. Star Sports channels currently dominate the sports genre in the BARC ratings. It will be interesting to see if Star can distribute its channel properly or whether it will meet the same fate of Star Sports 1 Marathi which has failed to get onboard major distribution platform operators.