Star Sports Kannada licence awaits clearance; IPL 2018 live on Survana

Star Survana will broadcast live the Indian Premier League 2018 regional language Kannada feed. Star India’s file for permission to replace Channel V with Star Sports Kannada is still pending with the Ministry of Information and Broadcast.

The host broadcaster for the IPL 2018 in its Kannada language anthem for the league has confirmed Star Survana as the channel for the regional language broadcast. The regional language IPL programming for the Kannadiga IPL fans will also be available on Star’s online video on demand platform Hotstar.

The MIB is reportedly denying all permissions, including for new launch or change of logos, in a bid to pressurize the broadcasters for switching to Indian space satellites. The broadcasters which have applied for new channels or changes in the name of existing channels have been denied permissions by the department of space with a clear directive to move to Indian satellites.

The Department of Space has been insisting the channels to use Indian Space Research Organisation-run Indian satellites instead of foreign satellites like Intelsat, Asiasat, Measat, and Apstar. The I&B ministry since October last had been seeking a no objection from the DoS on broadcasters’ applications for unlinking permissions, change of teleport and/or satellite. The ministry no cannot clear a broadcaster’s file for the launch of a new channel, or change of logo without a nod from the DoS.

Only 20% of the Indian channels – 156 out of a total of 724 – are on an Indian satellite.

Star India in October last year had announced the launch of its Kannada language regional sports channel – Star Sports Kannada. The proposed channel had to replace Star’s Hindi youth GEC platform Channel V.

Having initiated the process for statutory compliances, the broadcaster had also published a public notice pursuant to Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Service) Interconnection Regulation 2004 and the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable Service) Interconnection (Digital Addressable Cable Television System) Regulation 2012 to inform all associates that “Channel V shall cease to exist from November 16”.

All the operational requirements were in place to meet the November 16 launch – or transition – date, which was strategically scheduled to coincide with the Indian Super League Season-4 kicks-off on 17 November. However, this will not be possible even after five months to catch up with the Indian Premier League start date on April 7.

Four days before the scheduled launch of Star Sports Kannada, the plans were shelved as the file for the mandatory permissions was not cleared by the MIB. There is no progress till date and the broadcaster had to opt for its Kannada language GEC platform to broadcast IPL 2018.

Star India, in its first year of IPL broadcast, is targeting 700 million collective viewership across television and VoD platform Hotstar. The IPL will be broadcast live in six languages on ten Star network channels. In addition to the Hindi and English programming, the IPL will also be broadcast live in Bangla, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. While the broadcaster is running the Tamil and Telugu language regional sports channels, the launch of Star Sports Kannada is delayed for mandatory MIB permissions.

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