Star India has postponed the launch of 15 new channels and the name change of one channel till further intimation. The channels which were going to be launched include Star Gold Romance, Star Gold Thrills, Jalsha Josh, Star Movies Select, Super Hungama, Star Gold 2 HD, Star Sports Telugu HD, Star Sports Tamil HD, Disney Channel HD, Hungama HD, Pravah Pictures HD, Pravah Pictures, Vijay Super HD, Asianet Movies HD, Star Kirano and Star Kirano HD.
“This is to inform all distributors of television channels (DPOs) that the launch of the following fifteen (15) channels and name change of one channel has been deferred till further intimation,” read the statement from Star India.
In October 2021, Star India had published its new Reference Interconnect Offer (RIO) with new prices and announced the launch and rebranding of various channels. This RIO was set to come into effect from December 1st onwards, later the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) extended the deadline of NTO 2.0 implementation till April 2022.
Star has announced the shutting down of the following 11 existing channels Star World, STAR World HD, Star World Premiere HD, Baby TV HD, Bindass, Marvel HQ, UTV Movies, UTV Action, UTV HD, Star Sports 1 Marathi, and Star Sports 1 Bangla. Now, with the RIO expected to be imposed from 1st April 2022, Star India will publish an RIO according to the updated deadline and reschedule the launch of the 16 channels after April 2022 and will continue the broadcast of the channels that were announced to be shut down.