Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific

The company was originally registered to the Companies Registry of Hong Kong as Quford Limited on 31 August 1990. The company was renamed Hutchvision Channel Services Limited on 31 January 1991 before becoming Satellite Television Asian Region Limited (Chinese: 衛星電視有限公司; lit. 'Satellite Television Limited') on 4 July 1991. It was established by Hutchison Whampoa (which also owned the health and beauty retailer A.S. Watson Group at the time) and was headed by Richard Li (son of Li Ka-Shing, the founder of Cheung Kong which owns Hutchison Whampoa).

The company operated its television channels under a unified brand, Star TV (Chinese: 衛星電視; pinyin: Wèixīng Diànshì; lit. 'Satellite Television'). The company's strategy was to target the top 5 percent of Asian elites who spoke English and had bought power to offer pan-Asian English programming.[1] In its initial years, the channels were broadcast over AsiaSat 1 communication satellite operated by Asia Satellite Telecommunications which was a consortium of Hutchison Whampoa, China International Trust and Investment Corporation and Cable & Wireless Worldwide and its digital electronic services was funded by Sony based in Tokyo. As with the satellite's footprint, the channels reached from the Far East to the Middle East, broadcasting across 38 countries around the region. The Star TV Network's initial line-up of advertisement-supported five free-to-air channels at its launch were as follows:

1. Prime Sports (體育台; officially launched on 26 August 1991): 24-hour multi-sport television channel broadcast in English and Chinese; joint venture with TCI in the United States which owned Prime Network.
2. MTV (音樂台; officially launched on 15 September 1991): 24-hour music channel broadcast in English, Hindi and Chinese, focused on pop music; joint venture with Viacom in the United States which owned the American TV channel of the same name.
3. BBC WSTV (英語新聞台; officially launched on 14 October 1991): 24-hour news, current affairs and information from the BBC. This version of BBC World Service Television didn't air entertainment programmes as Entertainment broadcast these at the time (despite the name).
4. Chinese Channel (中文台; officially launched on 21 October 1991): 24-hour all full Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese variety entertainment channel that showcased full Cantonese and Chinese language content provided by CTV in Taiwan and ATV in Hong Kong broadcasts from Mainland China; also showed television series from other Greater China countries including China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
5. Entertainment (英語娛樂台; officially launched on 15 December 1991): 24-hour English language variety entertainment channel which showed dramas and variety shows from English-speaking countries including United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

STAR TV launched these channels with their first programmes were:

1. Prime Sports: New York City US Open Tennis (officially launched on 26 August 1991 at 17:00 Hong Kong Time)
2. MTV: 1991 MTV Video Music Awards (officially launched on 15 September 1991 at 06:00 Hong Kong Time)
3. BBC WSTV: BBC News (officially launched on 14 October 1991 at 12:00 Hong Kong Time)
4. Chinese Channel: Doraemon (officially launched on 21 October 1991 at 16:30 Hong Kong Time)
5. Entertainment: The Bold and the Beautiful (officially launched on 15 December 1991 at 18:00 Hong Kong Time)

On 1 October 1992, Star TV added Zee TV (which targeted Hindi-speaking audiences) from Zee Telefilms in India to its line-up.

In 1993, Goldman Sachs became the exclusive advisor to Hutchison Whampoa Limited and the Li family for the largest merger to date.[2] In February 1993, Julian Mounter, former director-general of Television New Zealand, was appointed as president and Chief Executive of the company.[3] In March 1993, Star TV was offered to join ranks made by the Asia Business News.[4] By that year, the service's advertisement bookings were Audi, Canon, Coca-Cola, Hennessy, Levi Strauss, MasterCard, Mobil, Motorola, NEC, Nike, Panasonic, Pepsi-Cola, Reebok, Sony, Sharp, Shell and Toshiba. Julian Mounter — the chief executive and the president of HutchVision, stated that the company plans to launch the AsiaSat 2 satellite in the next two years, while starting their pay-TV services. Julian Mounter also signed agreements with four companies, mostly the programme suppliers, that he stated that the company will have as many than six channels operating by April 1994. He also said that the programmes will include more English and Chinese movie channels, a business channel, a children's channel, and what was supposed to be a documentary channel, and another entertainment channel. With the launch of the new AsiaSat satellite, Star TV would have to be capable for broadcasting as many as one-hundred channels.[5] In June 1993, Star TV and Wharf Cable signed a deal in which Hong Kong's new cable television provider would carry Star TV's channels.[6] However, the deal was terminated in February 1994 in the carriage dispute between the two parties.[7]

Star TV's viewership across Asia have increased over the years, and it attracted advertisers. But the business was making loss. The company has been looking for an Anglophone partner for financial investments, additional English language programming and technical assistance, especially to launch a pay-television system that would carry encrypted channels.[8]

By late April 1993, Pearson approached Star TV's owners, and was expected to pay up to GBP 100 million.[8] Pearson (which owned minor stake in British broadcasters BSkyB and Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television at the time, and have just acquired Thames Television) has been looking to expand its media business outside the UK, especially because the British laws at that time did not allow Pearson to expand more on UK television business.[9][10] Pearson was looking for the 66% of the company, but the deal was reported to have required the Hong Kong side to remain active shareholders, making the deal to be turned down.[9][10] The initial negotiations with Rupert Murdoch were reported to have foundered after the Australian businessman demanded a controlling stake in the Hong Kong company.[8] On 1 July 1993, Murdoch's News Corporation purchased 63.6% of Star TV for US$525 million, half in cash, half in News Corporation's ordinary shares, blocking offers from Pearson. The deal came after News Corporation failed to acquire 22% of TVB because of regulatory issues.[11][12][13] News Corporation acquired the remaining 36.4% for US$299 million in July 1995.[14][15] Li family and Hutchison Whampoa would retain its shares in Hutchvision Hong Kong Limited, which uplinked Star TV's channels.[11][12][14][15] With the amount of money made from the 1993 sale, Richard Li went on to establish his own venture, Pacific Century Group.[16] On 1 August 1993, following News Corporation's takeover, Julian Mounter resigned as Chief Executive of the company. Sam Chisholm, who was the head of BSkyB at the time, became acting Chief Executive before he was formally appointed.[17][18][19]

In January 1994, James Griffiths resigned as a managing director, while Gary Davey became the managing director.[20] With the controversial removal of BBC World Service Television from the company's satellite television offerings for Northeast Asia in mid-April 1994 (discussed below), Star TV replaced the BBC channel with two channels; English-language film channel Star Movies and Chinese-language film channel Star Chinese Movies.[21] The decision about replacing WSTV with the movie channels were made while Star TV considering the launch of a documentary and educational channel that two companies had a joint-venture in them.[22] In April 1994, Star TV had formed a three-year partnership from Asia Television, as Star TV struggled to be the part of the Chinese-language programme battle with TVB. The joint-venture marked the beginning of the long-term cooperation for the programmes and for the co-productions. However, this agreement also supersedes the previous program supply deal made in 1991 (with ATV being the part of the Chinese Channel's programming and Star was still being owned by the Li Ka-Shing family) that it were foundered due to the strike. Star TV also acquired one-thousand hours annually of prime-time dramas and special programming dubbed in Mandarin Chinese. ATV also provided dubbing and other facilities for the Star TV Network.

The joint-venture also co-produced fewer than 40 hours of quality dramas per year, broadcast simultaneously with ATV showing the original programming in Cantonese in the British Hong Kong territory, and Star TV showing them in Mandarin Chinese. In addition, Star TV also operated the Chinese Channel in competition to TVB. Star TV also bought a library of more than 570 Chinese films from the Golden Harvest Group and had recently announced an deal of more than 50 films to be produced in the next three years by Media Asia Film.[23]

Star TV and Viacom (MTV) ended partnership that supplied music television programming, so Star TV launched Channel V to replace the American brand. The Indian version was launched on 23 May 1994, it was followed by four additional versions: Channel V International, Channel V Thailand, Channel V Korea, Channel V Japan, and another three versions in Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese and Cantonese.[24] STAR TV split its satellite signal to both northern and southern beams, resulting in a change for both operations. The northern beam included Prime Sports, Channel V, Star Plus, Star Movies and Star Chinese Channel, while the southern beam had Prime Sports, Channel V, Star Plus, BBC WSTV, Zee TV and Zee Cinema.[25] However, Star Sports' northern beam featured soccer and gymnastics, while the southern beam included cricket for the Indian viewers.[26] However, after the purchase of a 49.9% interest of Zee TV in early-1994, the northern beam launched Zee News and Zee Cinema, which were Zee TV's sister channels.[27]

In Summer 1995, Star TV considering the plans to launch at least thirty channels on the service when AsiaSat 2 was launched. The new channels let the Star TV Network to further customize its services for other regions and cultures.[28]

In early-1996, Star TV formed a third-party joint-venture as Phoenix Satellite Television Corporation, offering three channels on its service targeting China, with Phoenix Chinese Channel offering variety & entertainment, Star Sports and Phoenix Movies.[29] On 30 March 1996 at 7 pm Hong Kong Time, Star TV split into Star Plus and Star Chinese Channel by certain areas:

• Star Plus would continue to serve viewers in South Asia and the Middle East, while East and Southeast Asian viewers would receive the newly relaunched Star World channel.
• Star Chinese Channel would still be available to the viewers in Taiwan, but the television watchers in Hong Kong and the Mainland China would get the new Phoenix Chinese Channel instead. On 6 May 1996, Star TV launched Viva Cinema, the 24-hour Filipino film channel, in partnership with Viva Entertainment. STAR later exited from the partnership and did not renew their contract, and the channel was relaunched as Pinoy Box Office on 1 August 2003. In September 1996, Star TV formed a partnership with NDTV, offering news programming to the prime-time slot seen on Star Plus, the joint-venture expansion led to the launch of Star News, a news channel targeting India.[30] NDTV left the channel's business and ABP Group took its space in 2003, before Star India completely gave up and sold their share in 2012. On 1 October 1996, Star Sports (since renamed from Prime Sports) and ESPN Asia have agreed to combine their loss making operations in Asia.[31] The new joint venture, later named ESPN Star Sports, would be headquartered in Singapore (where ESPN's operations in Asia were based in).[32]

In 1997, Star TV launched Star Select package of television channels targeting the Middle East via the Orbit (now OSN) service. In 1998, Star TV and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were in discussion to launch a new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's movie channel in India. Rathikant Basu also stated that the company was considering to launch four new regional channels, including those in Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and Punjabi.[33] In December 1998, the Star TV Network's channels were supposed to be removed on the Indovision service due to a bitter clash between the company and Indovision.[34] However, the court granted Star TV's decision to not sell its channels anywhere across Indonesia. During the same month, Star TV announced its partnership with Phoenix Satellite TV and in cooperation with the European-based Chinese News and Entertainment to launch Phoenix Europe, a Mandarin-language channel that will broadcast entertainment and news from Phoenix Television's libraries to European audiences in August of the same year.[35]

In May 1999, Star TV migrated its services from AsiaSat 1 and 2 to AsiaSat 3S.[36] By late-1999 to the early-2000s, Star TV used AsiaSat 3S and Palapa C2 to broadcast across Asia and the Middle East in 53 countries with the audience reaching up to 300 million. Star Chinese Channel, Phoenix Chinese Channel, Star Plus, Star World, Channel V, ESPN, Star Sports, Star Movies, Phoenix Movies, Viva Cinema, Star News, Zee News, Zee Cinema, Zee TV, Fox News, Sky News and the National Geographic Channel were broadcast on the service at the time.[37]

In 2000, Star TV inserted even more focus in the two markets, including China and India. In India, Star TV started to increase a number of Hindi programming seen on Star Plus and received an success from the Indian Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and with several Hindi-language popular serials, beating their own rivals — Zee TV and Sony Entertainment Television. The Indian operations was estimated to account for 55% of Star TV's revenues in Asia at the time.[38] On 15 January 2000, STAR TV added Disney Channel, as the company handling it's distribution and ad sales for the channel, it marks the second partnership with The Walt Disney Company, which also owned ESPN. On 1 July 2000, Zee TV ended partnership with Star TV. The Hong Kong-based company converted Star Plus to a Hindi entertainment channel, and introduced Star World in the area as an English entertainment replacement.

On New Year's Day (1 January) 2001 at midnight stroke, the company was rebranded from Star TV to Star, reflecting the company's evolution from a television brand to a multi-service, multi-platform brand. In Chinese, the company referred itself as Xīngkōng Chuánméi (Chinese: 星空傳媒; lit. 'Star Media') instead of Wèixīng Diànshì from then on. It introduced a new set of logos. The logo scheme of the Star network (the name of the channel next to the Star logo icon, contained within a rectangle with two opposite corners rounded) that had been used throughout 2007 (but it still used by Xing Kong, antv and tvOne's news programs Kabar[39] as of 2023). Static Design (a broadcasting design arm of Static 2358, now-defunct) designed the company and the seven channels' identities.[40]

Star TV aired the high-definition programme Angel in 2006, in co-production with the Singaporean Mediacorp Studios. The show was scheduled to have 40 episodes aired, and shot in Taiwan. The show was aired on Star Chinese Channel in Taiwan and via Mediacorp in Singapore, the Star TV Network will handle distribution and sales in other countries. In addition, Star Chinese Movies had been announced that the channel has investment in three high-definition films, to be executive produced by Derek Yee Tung-sing. Plus, the National Geographic Channel involved up to 30% in one-thousand hours of high-definition programming commissioned in Asia (excluding Japan).[41]

On 19 August 2009, News Corporation announced a restructure of Star. Star India and Star Greater China would be separated from Star's headquarters in Hong Kong, and the heads of the former two companies would report directly to James Murdoch, News Corporation's then-Chairman and Chief Executive for Europe and Asia.[42][43][44]

• Star India took over all of Star's operations in India, as well as sales and distribution of Fox-branded channels in the region. It also took over Star's distribution offices in the Middle East, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• Star Greater China would oversee Star Chinese Channel, Star Chinese Movies, Star Chinese Movies 2, Xing Kong and Channel V Mainland China, as well as Fortune Star film library.
• The original Star TV company became Fox International Channels Asia Pacific, and would now focus on East and Southeast Asia. It also took over the representation of FIC channels from NGC Network Asia, LLC (the channels that were distributed by Star anyway). The company would continue to distribute its channels in the Middle East, and would take responsibility of the distribution of Star India and Star Greater China's channels in Asia outside their respective home markets.

Despite the 2009 reorganisations, the company did not immediately change its legal name from Satellite Television Asian Region Limited. It only changed its legal name to Fox International Channels Asia Pacific Limited (Chinese: 福斯國際電視網有限公司; lit. 'Fox International Television Network Limited') on 2 September 2014.

In August 2010, it was announced that News Corporation would sell a controlling stake in its assets in mainland China to China Media Capital (CMC).[45][46][47] Xing Kong (both domestic and international versions) and Channel V Mainland China, plus Fortune Star film library were in the sale,[45][46][47] and a joint venture named Star China Media was created in the process. CMC acquired the remaining stake in Star China Media in January 2014.[48][49][50]

In June 2012, it was announced that News Corporation would buy ESPN International's share in the joint venture ESPN Star Sports.[51][52] The versions of ESPN broadcast in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia were rebranded as Fox Sports on 28 January 2013,[53][54] and Star Sports became Fox Sports 2 on 15 August 2014.[55][56] The Fox Sports rebrand did not affect India and East Asia: In India, Star India took over ESPN Star Sports' Indian subsidiary,[57] and kept the ESPN name until 6 November 2013, when all of Star India's sports channels were relaunched under the Star Sports brand;[58][59][60] a version of Star Sports broadcast to mainland China and South Korea kept the brand, and instead, the version of ESPN for mainland China was renamed Star Sports 2 on 1 January 2014.

In the wake of 2011 News Corporation scandals, the original News Corporation was split into 21st Century Fox and the new News Corp on 28 June 2013, with the television businesses (which FIC Asia was a part of) going to 21st Century Fox. In October 2013, 12.15% of share in Phoenix Television held by 21st Century Fox (through Star) was sold to TPG Capital for HK$1.66 billion (about US$213.73 million).[61][62][63][64] This and 2014 sale of Star China Media marked 21st Century Fox's exit from Mandarin entertainment television market in mainland China.

By 2014, Fox International Channels Middle East took over the distribution of Star World, Star Movies, National Geographic-branded channels, Fox-branded channels, Channel V International, Baby TV and Sky News in the Middle East and North Africa from Star Select. (Now renamed Fox Networks Group Middle East, the Middle East business is, together with FNG Asia Pacific, still a part of the wider FNG Asia operations.)

In January 2016, the company's parent unit, Fox International Channels, was announced to be split into three divisions, which would see the heads of newly renamed Fox Networks Group Europe, Fox Networks Group Latin America and Fox Networks Group Asia all reporting to CEO Peter Rice and COO Randy Freer at Fox Networks Group in the United States, thus abolishing Fox International Channels as a separate unit from 21st Century Fox's television business in the U.S.[65] Accordingly, the company was officially launched new name and logo to becomes Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific Limited (Chinese: 福斯傳媒有限公司; lit. 'Fox Media Limited') on 29 February 2016.

On 5 December 2017, Star India's Chairman and CEO Uday Shankar was appointed as 21st Century Fox's president for Asia, and the President of Fox Networks Group Asia would report directly to Shankar (instead of the equivalent at FNG U.S.).[66]

With the acquisition of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets by The Walt Disney Company, FNG Asia Pacific (including FNG Taiwan, and FNG's remaining businesses in mainland China), as well as Star India, became a part of Disney and FNG Asia were integrated into Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International (now Disney International Operations) unit. Fox Networks Group Asia was split into three, as to plug into the Disney International structure with offices in Shanghai (Northern Asia), Mumbai (India) and Singapore (Southeast Asia). The reconfiguration and layoff began on 29 June 2020 with layoff focused on FNG Asia's Hung Hom, Kowloon headquarters, which dates back to the 1993 acquisition by a 21st Century Fox predecessor of PCCW.[67]

The Walt Disney Company has announced to officially shutting down 18 of their pay TV channels on Friday, 1 October 2021 as Disney prioritized the rollout for Disney+ across Asian territories (or Disney+ Hotstar for Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand). Mentioned pay TV channels include Fox Sports network, in which at the time, they broadcast Formula 1 and MotoGP along with all four major Grand Slams and most of UFC fights and Fox Movies network, which also include Fox Action Movies and Fox Family Movies, when Disney, Marvel Studios, and 20th Century films were absent following the acquisition.[68]

National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Star Chinese Channel and Star Chinese Movies will remain on-air as most of Fox Sports Asia programming heading elsewhere after the closure, such as SPOTV which replaced the main Fox Sports channel on launch while also aired the remainder of 2021 MotoGP World Championship, awhile latest Walt Disney, Marvel and 20th Century films were released through Disney+ (or Disney+ Hotstar). General entertainment contents which has been aired on Fox and Fox Life are either moved to Disney+ or, following the shutdown, through Fox's rival channels such as Lifetime (which Disney partly-owned the channel via A&E Networks), AXN, Rock Entertainment, TrueVisions (True Series), Now TV (Now Studio), among others.

This caused some of their employees, including Singapore-based marketing leads Daniel Tan and Shoba Martin to leave the company following the pay TV operation shutdown,[69] awhile at the same time, this decision has been criticized due to poor Internet connectivity in some areas and also got no plans to rollout Disney+ for other smaller regions.

Meanwhile in Taiwan, Disney Channel has officially closed on New Year's Day 2022 as Disney contents relocated to Disney+ permanently.[70] Meanwhile at the same time, both Fox Movies and Fox rebrand themselves as Star Movies Gold (which, unlike Star Movies HD, has different movie lineups and using branding from the first incarnation) and Star World respectively.[71] This marked the only country with Disney channels operating under the Star brand alongside currently existed Star Chinese Movies and Star Chinese Channel.

• The Walt Disney Company (Taiwan) Ltd.
  • Star Chinese Channel Taiwan – a 24-hour Taiwanese Mandarin entertainment channel available only in Taiwan. It is one of the five original Star TV channels when it launched on 21 October 1991. It currently broadcasts on signals for Taiwan audiences.
  • Star Chinese Movies Taiwan – a 24-hour Taiwanese Mandarin movie channel available only in Taiwan. Was split off from Star Chinese Channel and launched on 1 May 1994 as "Star Mandarin Movies" and re-launched on 30 March 1996 as "Star Chinese Movies". It currently broadcasts on signals for Taiwan audiences.
  • Star Entertainment Channel Taiwan – a 24-hour Taiwanese Mandarin entertainment channel available on CHT MOD only in Taiwan and certain cable TV providers in Taiwan.
  • Star Movies Gold and Star Movies HD Taiwan – a 24-hour HD Taiwanese English movie channels available only in Taiwan. Star Movies Gold and Star Movies HD have its own programming and logo.
  • Star World Taiwan – a 24-hour Taiwanese English entertainment channel available only in Taiwan relaunched based in Taiwan on New Year's Day (1 January) 2022 at midnight stroke NST.
• The Walt Disney Company (Hong Kong) Limited
  • National Geographic Channel – a 24-hour channel available in HD and now officially shift its ownership to National Geographic Partners.
  • Nat Geo Wild – a 24-hour channel available in HD and now officially shift its ownership to National Geographic Partners.
  • Star Chinese Movies - a 24-hour Cantonese and Mandarin movie channel available in HD.
• The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd.
  • National Geographic Channel – a 24-hour channel available in HD and now officially shift its ownership to National Geographic Partners.
  • Nat Geo Wild – a 24-hour channel available in HD and now officially shift its ownership to National Geographic Partners.
  • BabyTV – the first 24-hour commercial-free channel for children under pre-schoolers. This channel is now available worldwide.
  • Star Chinese Movies - a 24-hour Cantonese and Mandarin movie channel available in HD.

• Fox – a 24-hour Southeast Asian entertainment channel.
• FX – a 24-hour channel offering a broad mix programming targeted at male audiences including comedy, action sports, drama series, reality shows, cars and swimsuit model programs. It was available in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.
• Fox Sports – a 24-hour sports channel.
• Fox Life – a 24-hour channel offering broad programming of television series, sitcoms and movies programs. It was available in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
• Fox Movies – a 24-hour English movie channel which was available in Macau, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Singapore, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Maldives, Cambodia, Brunei, Fiji, Guam, Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia. The Taiwan feed of Fox Movies was rebranded to Star Movies Gold on January 1, 2022.
• Fox Action Movies
• Fox Family Movies – a 24-hour Southeast Asian movie channel.
• Fox Crime – the first and only 24-hour factual and fictional entertainment television channel dedicated to crime, investigation and mystery. Available in Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, the Middle East and South Korea.
• Nat Geo People – formerly known as A1 and Nat Geo Adventure.
• Star Sports – a 24-hour sports channel available only in Mainland China.
• Star Chinese Channel - a 24-hour Mandarin entertainment channel available only in the Asia Pacific.
• Star Chinese Movies Legend – (formerly known as STAR Chinese Movies 2) a 24-hour Cantonese and Mandarin movie channel that shows popular Chinese box-office hits from the 1970 until 1993. It is currently available in Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Macau, Indonesia, the Middle East and Malaysia.
• Disney Channel – 24-hour pan-Asian pay TV channel which was available in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
• Disney Junior – 24-hour southeast Asian pay TV channel which was available in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
• Channel [V] – a 24-hour international music video channel. There were local versions of Channel [V] in Hong Kong, Macau, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (the Republic of China), the Philippines, India, Thailand, and Australia.
• Fox Filipino – a 24-hour Filipino language general entertainment channel broadcast in the Philippines.
• tvN – a 24-hour Korean language entertainment channel managed by CJ E&M, available to audiences in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
• Xing Kong – also known as Star Space, is a Mandarin general entertainment channel in People's Republic of China. It was available in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Middle East, India, and Indonesia.
• Phoenix Chinese Channel – a 24-hour Mandarin international news and entertainment channel it was launched on 30 March 1996. Available in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
• Phoenix InfoNews Channel – a 24-hour Mandarin international news channel it was launched on 1 January 2001. Available on Worldwide
• Phoenix Movies Channel – a 24-hour Mandarin movie channel in People's Republic of China it was launched on 28 August 1998. Available in China and the Middle East.
• Phoenix Hong Kong Channel – a 24-hour Cantonese news and entertainment channel in Hong Kong it was launched on 28 March 2011. Available on Hong Kong, Asia Pacific (Except ASEAN), Middle East, Australia, and the United States.
• antv – an national private commercial free-to-air terrestrial television network in Indonesia.
• Viva Cinema – a Filipino Movie Channel from Viva Films in the Philippines subsidiary of Viva Entertainment.
• BBC World Service Television (now BBC World News) – a 24-hour English news channel and one of the original Star TV channels when it launched on 14 October 1991. It was a joint venture between BBC World News and Star TV, a subsidiary of BBC International Television, a member of BBC Television, and owned by BBC. It ended its affiliation on 31 March 1996 to broadcast separate ways.
• Star News (now ABP News) – a 24-hour Hindi and English news channel in India was launched on 18 February 1998.
• MTV Asia – a 24-hour music video channel and one of the original Star TV channels when it launched on 15 September 1991 a joint venture between MTV Networks Asia Pacific owned by Viacom and Star TV; but it ended its affiliation on 2 May 1994 to broadcast separate ways and was replaced by Channel V.
• Prime Sports – a 24-hour English and Mandarin sports channel and one of the original Star TV channels when it launched on 21 August 1991 a joint venture between Prime Network and Star TV; but it ended its affiliation 30 March 1996 to broadcast separate ways and it was replaced by Star Sports.
• Film Indonesia – a 24-hour Indonesian movie channel.
• Star Channel – a 24-hour Japanese movie channel.
• Star Plus – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel.
• Star Plus Japan – a 24-hour Japanese entertainment channel.
• TechTV – a 24-hour computer channel. It was formerly seen in the Middle East via Star Select.
• EL TV – a 24-hour Hindi entertainment channel. EL TV ended its relationship with Star TV in 1999.
• Zee TV – a 24-hour Hindi entertainment channel. Zee Network ended its relationship with Star TV in 1999.
• Zee Cinema – a 24-hour Hindi movie channel. Zee Network ended its relationship with Star TV in 1999.
• CNBC Asia – a 24-hour English business news channel launched on 20 June 1995, this channel terminated within 2006 replacing CNBC Europe. It was formerly available in the Middle East via Star Select.
• CNBC Europe – a 24-hour English business news channel, formerly available on Star Select in the Middle East. This channel was terminated on 31 March 2007.
• The History Channel – a 24-hour history and biography channel in India. This channel was relaunched as Fox History and Entertainment in November 2008.
• Jetix – a 24-hour kids channel, formerly available on Star Select in the Middle East. This channel was terminated on 30 November 2008.
• Channel V Korea – a music channel, the South Korean affiliate of Channel V, launched on 16 June 2001. The channel was temporarily shut down on 31 December 2008.
• Fox News Channel – a 24-hour American international news channel and it was launched on 7 October 1996.
• Sky News – a British international news channel available on Europe and Asia Pacific.
• ITV Granada – a 24-hour British entertainment from ITV plc now only available on Star Select in the Middle East, dropped from the line-up in the rest of Asia in 2002. It was formerly known as Granada UKTV and Granada TV.
• ESPN Star Sports – a 24-hour sports channel with broadcast by ESPN Star Sports (ESS) a joint venture with ESPN International.
• ESPNews Asia – a 24-hour sports news channel.
• Asianet – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel and was launched on 30 August 1993.
• Asianet Plus – a 24-hour Indian movie channel. It was launched on 23 July 2005.
• Asianet Movies – a 24-hour Indian movie channel. It was launched on 15 July 2012.
• Star World Asia – a 24-hour English entertainment channel with to Southeast Asia and one of the five original Star TV channels when it launched on 15 December 1991 as "Star Plus" and re-launched on 31 March 1996 as "Star World".
• Star Vijay – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel. It was launched on 24 November 1994.
• Star Gold – a 24-hour Indian movie channel. It was launched on 17 September 2000.
• Star Maa – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel. It was launched in 2002.
• Star Utsav – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel. It was launched on 7 June 2004.
• Star Suvarna – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel. It was launched on 17 June 2007.
• Star Jalsha – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel. It was launched on 8 September 2008.
• Star Pravah – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel. It was launched on 24 November 2008.
• Movies OK – a 24-hour Indian movie channel. It was launched on 6 May 2012.
• Star World Premiere – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel that aired popular shows from the United States and was launched on 24 September 2013.
• Star Suvarna Plus – a 24-hour Indian movie channel. It was launched on 14 August 2013.
• Star Jalsha Movies – a 24-hour Indian entertainment channel and was launched on 24 September 2013.

The BBC and Star TV originally signed a deal under which the Hong Kong operator would carry the BBC channel for 10 years.[19] But in March 1994, the BBC and Star TV reached a deal after an out-of-court settlement that would gradually drop BBC World Service Television from the satellite broadcaster's offerings. BBC WSTV would be dropped from the channel line-up for Northeast Asia by mid-April that year, but would be available in the rest of Asia until 31 March 1996.[21][72] The deal came after such demands from the government of the People's Republic of China.[73]

It was alleged that the PRC government was unhappy with BBC coverage of China[73] and Murdoch's September 1993 speech, which declared "(telecommunications) have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere... satellite broadcasting makes it possible for information-hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state-controlled television channels",[73][74] so the Beijing government threatened to block Star TV in the huge mainland Chinese market if the BBC was not withdrawn.[73] The former prime minister, Li Peng,requested and obtained the ban of satellite dishes throughout the country.[74]

There were also reported concerns surrounding editorial control of BBC WSTV after News Corporation's acquisition of Star TV.[19]

The subsequent removal of the BBC channel and many ensuing declarations from Murdoch led critics to believe the businessman was striving to appease the Chinese government in order to have the ban lifted.[74] Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) gave Rupert Murdoch a mock award titled the "P.U.-Litzer Prize" for "Media Hypocrite of the Year" in 1994.[73]

In 2001, the BBC and CITVC signed a deal that would make BBC World available to "upmarket hotels, as well as guest houses and foreign apartments" in mainland China.[75]