Star publishes MRP, bouquet rates; plans to launch four new channels by Dec

After losing the cases in Madras High Court and the Supreme Court, broadcaster Star India has published the maximum retail price (MRP) and bouquet rates of its channels. The broadcaster has also revealed that it will launch four new channels by 31 December.

The channels to be launched by the broadcaster includes regional sports channels Star Sports 1 Telugu and Star Sports 1 Kannada besides Hindi movie channels Star Gold Thrills and Star Gold Thrills HD.

The MRP of Star Sports 1 Telugu and Star Sports 1 Kannada is Rs 19 each while Star Gold Thrills and Star Gold Thrills HD have been priced at Rs 1. each.

As reported earlier, Star also has plans to launch regional sports channels in Bengali, Marathi, and Malayalam. It already owns and operates Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star Sports 1 Tamil. The launch of Star Gold Thrills will also expand the network’s Hindi movie offering which includes Star Gold, Star Gold Select, Movies OK, and Star Utsav Movies.

Meanwhile, the broadcaster has converted all its FTA channels to pay as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) tariff order stipulates that FTA channels cannot be bundled with pay channels. Other pay-TV broadcasters have also converted their FTA channels to pay.

Consequently, Star Utsav, Star Utsav Movies, and Star Sports First have been converted to pay with an MRP of Rs 1 each.

Star has priced its driver entertainment and sports channels at Rs 19. These include Star Plus, Star Jalsha, Star Maa, Star Suvarna, Asianet, Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports Select 1, Star Sports 1 Telugu, and Star Sports 1 Kannada.

Star Vijay and Star Sports 1 Tamil have been priced at Rs 17 each followed by Asianet Movies at Rs 15. The MRP of Star Movies has been fixed Rs 12 followed by Star Bharat and Star Maa Movies at Rs 10 each. Star World and Star Gold have an MRP of Rs 8 each. Other popular channels across entertainment, movie, sports, and infotainment genres have been priced between Rs 1 to 6.

The broadcaster has fixed the MRP of most of its HD channels at Rs 19 barring a few. Star Gold HD, Star Gold Select HD, Star World HD, Star World Premiere HD, Star Sports Select HD 2, and Star Pravah HD have been priced in the range of Rs 9 to 15. HD infotainment channels have been priced between Rs 1 to 10.

The broadcaster has created seven language bouquets each for SD and HD channels in base and premium categories.

The base and premium bouquets for SD channels in Hindi, Bengali and Marathi have been priced at Rs 49 and Rs 79 per month respectively. For SD channels in other languages, the base and premium bouquets are priced at Rs 39 and Rs 69 respectively.

The base and premium HD bouquets in Hindi, Marathi, and Bengali have been priced at Rs 85 and Rs 120 per month. For other languages, the base and premium bouquets are priced at Rs 75 and Rs 110 a month.