MUMBAI: Star Sports is all set to unveil its third regional channel after launching Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star Sports 1 Tamil. The next language market of focus for the company is Telugu and the channel will go on air on 7 December 2018 i.e. Friday, a source close to development informed Indiantelevision.com. As the Vizag leg of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) starts on 7 December at Rajiv Gandhi Indoor stadium.
Star Sports 1 Telugu testing is in process on AsiaSat 7 at 105 degree east.
The formal launch of the channel will be done at a press conference at Taj Krishna, Banjara Hills in Hyderabad on 5 December.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com, Star Sports CEO Gautam Thakar in September had said that Telugu and Kannada were going to be priority language markets for him.
Telugu feed of the sports event like IPL was aired on Star Maa Movies this season.
Under the new tariff order, Star Sports 1 Telugu and Star Sports 1 Kannada (yet to be launched) have been priced at Rs 19 for the TV consumers.
In September this year, Star Sports also launched Star Sports 3, a multi-lingual channel in place of Channel V.
Towards the end of last year Star India contemplated taking Channel V off air, with Star Sports 1 Kannada as its substitute, with 16 November 2017 having been fixed as the launch date.
However, the broadcaster was unable to get the necessary approvals from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).
Star Sports currently boasts of 14 channels, including Star Sports 1 Telugu, in its bouquet, with nine Standard Definition (SD) and five High Definition (HD) channels.
