MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has approved a total of four applications from Star India and Sun TV to rename their channels.

The newly renamed channels are Star Sports 1 Bangla, Star Sports 1 Marathi, Sun Marathi and Sun Bangla.

In a bid to showcase animated movies to the viewers, Star India had earlier planned to launch Star Movies Kids SD and HD, which has now been renamed to Star Sports 1 Marathi.

Star Sports 1 Bangla launched on 5 March with an MRP of Rs 19. Apart from this, the broadcaster had launched three more channels—Star Sports 3, Star Sports 1 Telugu and Star Sports 1 Kannada.

Likewise, Sun TV got the nod from MIB to rename Udaya News and Gemini News to Sun Marathi and Sun Bangla respectively. Earlier, it was reported that Sun TV Network will be investing Rs 300 crore in the coming years to launch regional channels in Bengali and Marathi. While the Bengali channel was to go on air from February onwards, the Marathi channel will be up in a year's time.

So far, Sun TV has been focused on the five South Indian states -- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana -- and has 33 channels.

Sun TV group CFO S L Narayanan said, "After the launch of the Bengali channel, the Marathi channel is expected to be launched in the next one year. Both of these channels are expected to achieve their break-even in two years of operations."