Star Sports (East Asian TV channel)

Star Sports

Logo used since 2009.
Country	China
Broadcast area	China
Network	Fox Sports Asia
Headquarters	Hong Kong SAR, China
Programming
Language(s)	English
Picture format	1080i HDTV (downscaled to 16:9 480i/576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner	Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific (Disney International Operations)
Sister channels	Mainland China: Star Movies National Geographic
History
Launched	August 21, 1991 (Star Sports) June 1, 1992 (ESPN, Star Sports 2)
Replaced by	SPOTV (South Korea)
Former names	Star Sports 2 ESPN (1992–2014)
Links
Website	global.espn.com

Star Sports is an East Asian pay television sports channel broadcast to Mainland China and formerly South Korea, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia). It was previously part of the Fox Sports operations in East and Southeast Asia, but this version retained Star Sports name; ESPN Mainland China was instead renamed Star Sports 2.

History

Hong Kong-based Star TV launched Prime Sports (later renamed Star Sports) in partnership with American company TCI, which owned Prime-branded regional sports channels. The channel was broadcast across Asia, as with the footprint of AsiaSat 1. Star TV has since regionalized the channel with several versions, including a dedicated version for Taiwan. Later, ESPN has joined in the region as a competitor to Star Sports.

In October 1996, ESPN and Star Sports agreed to combine their operations across Asia.[1] As a result, a joint venture named, ESPN Star Sports was formed, to be headquartered in Singapore.[2]

In April 1999, the channel had a first major logo change from vertical to horizontal, along with other STAR TV channels.

In June 2012, it was announced that News Corporation would buy ESPN International's share in ESPN Star Sports.[3][4] Following the News Corporation take over, ESPN all over Asia would be relaunched as Fox Sports but the relaunch of ESPN Star Sports as Fox Sports did not affect much of East Asia, as Star Sports continued to broadcast in Mainland China and South Korea kept the brand, and instead, the version of ESPN for Mainland China was renamed as Star Sports 2 on 10 January 2014.[5][6]

Unlike 16 other channels owned by Disney which were shut down in 2021 and 2023, Star Sports China continues to operate until this day.[7]

Channels

• Star Sports 1
• Star Sports 2: This channel was not available in South Korea only in Mainland China.

Programming

Sporting events covered by Star Sports include:

Australian Rules Football

• Australian Football League

Baseball

• Major League Baseball:
  • Select spring training and regular season games (home games only and select road games)
  • ESPN Major League Baseball (Sunday Night Baseball and select special games, tie-breaker and Home Run Derby)
  • MLB All-Star Game (MLB International feed)
  • Postseason (wild card, Division Series and Championship Series)
  • World Series (MLB International feed)
• World Baseball Classic
• Korea Baseball Organization (ESPN feed)[8]

Basketball

• US NCAA Men's College Basketball (Fox College Hoops)
• BIG3

Boxing

• Versus
• World Boxing Matches

Bull Riding

• Professional Bull Riders events

Cricket

• ICC
  • Cricket World Cup[9]
  • Under-19 Cricket World Cup (all matches available on Fox+, highlights and live coverage of final on television)
  • Women's Cricket World Cup

Football

• AFC Champions League (from play-offs, for West Zone play-offs until quarter finals)
• AFC U-19 Championship
• AFC U-16 Championship
• AFC Futsal Championship
• AFC Futsal Club Championship
• Danish Super League (one match per week, 2019–2021 (originally from June 2020 with the remaining matches in 2019–20))
• DBU Pokalen (three matches (both semi finals and a final) in 2019–20)

Golf

• The Masters Tournament
• U.S. Open Championship
• The Open Championship
• PGA Championship
• PGA EuroPro Tour
• ANA Inspiration
• United States Women's Open Championship (golf)
• Women's PGA Championship
• Ricoh Women's British Open
• The Evian Championship
• Ladies European Tour (Highlights only)
• LPGA Tour

Kickboxing

• Kunlun Fight

Mixed Martial Arts

• Ultimate Fighting Championship[10]

Motorsports

• Formula One
• FIA Formula 2 Championship
• FIA Formula 3 Championship
• FIM Motocross World Championship
• Superbike World Championship
• World Touring Car Cup (only for highlights)
• MotoGP
• WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
• FIA World Endurance Championship (only for highlights)
• IndyCar Series
• Formula E
• Supercars Championship

Rugby

Union

• Global Rapid Rugby

Tennis

• Australian Open
• French Open
• Wimbledon
• US Open
• Fed Cup (final only)
• ATP Cup
• Laver Cup
• Hawaii Open

News

• SportsCenter
• ESPN FC

See also

• Fox Sports (Asian TV network)
• Star Sports Network India
• Fox Sports' (and previously ESPN Star Sports') partnership in South Korea:
  • JTBC3 Fox Sports
  • SBS ESPN
  • MBC ESPN

References

1. "Rival sport channels ESPN, Star TV team up together". Advertising Age. October 9, 1996. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
2. Sullivan, Maureen (January 15, 1997). "Asian TV team christens venture ESPN Star Sports". Variety. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
3. Szalai, Georg (6 June 2012). "News Corp. to Buy Out ESPN's Stake in Asian TV Venture". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
4. Steel, Emily (June 7, 2012). "News Corp to take over ESPN Star Sports". Financial Times. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
5. Christensen, Nic (July 4, 2014). "Fox to reorganises its sports channels". Mumbrella Asia. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
6. Valisno, Jeffrey O. (August 26, 2014). "Fox completes rebranding of sports channels". BusinessWorld. Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
7. Multiple sources:
   • Frater, Patrick (27 April 2021). "Disney Slashes Linear TV in Asia With 18-Channel Closure, Shifts Focus to Disney Plus". Variety. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
   • "Star Sports China uses ESPN feed". YouTube. 3 March 2024. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
   • Kanter, Jake (27 April 2021). "Disney Closes 18 Asia TV Channels As It Shifts Focus To Disney+". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
   • Lai, Adrian (29 April 2021). "Disney To Shut Down 18 Channels In Southeast Asia". IGN. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
8. "ESPN Reaches Agreement with Eclat Media Group to Provide Exclusive English-Language Coverage of KBO League, South Korea's Most Popular Sports League, throughout Canada, Parts of Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Select Countries in Asia". ESPN. 2020-05-22. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
9. "FOX Sports Asia on Instagram: "The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 starts today! 🔥🏆💯 .. Follow Fox Sports Asia for the latest news and updates. ✅✅✅ .. .. .. #icc #cricket🏏…"". Instagram. Archived from the original on 2021-12-24. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
10. "FOX+ the home of UFC® in Philippines". FOX+. Archived from the original on 4 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-04.

External links

• Official website for TV listings