Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific

**Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific** (formerly known as Star TV, Fox International Channels Asia Pacific and Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific), is an Asian TV brand of channels, owned by The Walt Disney Company.

## History

On 7 April 1990, a Chinese Long March 3 Rocket launched the Hughes HS376-refurbished Westar VI satellite (which had been saved by NASA from its 1985 launch) as AsiaSat 1 in Xichang, Szechuan; located in China. China International Trust and Investment Corporation, Cable & Wireless and Hutchison Whampoa, had shares and interest on the newly-launched company — **Asia Sat**ellite Telecommunications LTD (AsiaSat), making the first Asian privately-owned satellite corporation. The launch of AsiaSat led to the origins of the STAR TV Network. Additionally, the extra transponder space was given out to other broadcasters.

On 31 August 1990, Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific was founded as Quford Limited.

In December 1990, the British Hong Kong government granted an license from HutchVision, a Hutchison Whampoa's very-first satellite broadcasting arm, to broadcast up to five channels to the AsiaSat 1 service operating from Hong Kong. With this change, Quford Limited was rebranded as HutchVision Channel Services Limited on 31 January 1991. Few months later, the service was rebranded as STAR TV on 4 July 1991. The STAR TV brand became the final name for the HutchVision's new channel service for the launch of the US$300 million venture. The service was launched in August 1991.

STAR TV's five 24-hour channels were entirely broadcasted, not only Asia, but including the Middle East; these channels feature MTV Asia (a joint-venture between Viacom), WSTV (a joint-venture between the BBC), Prime Sports (a joint-venture between Denver-based Prime Network), with entertainment programmes, dramas and movies being based on Entertainment, with Entertainment had an Chinese-language version (which also includes financial news too).

With STAR TV's decision to carry WSTV instead of CNN, Richard Li stated that, CNN had too many American content at the time, during the Gulf War, their American bias were too apparent, and a lot of countries stated that it were not acceptable.

Before their official launch, STAR TV was meant to carry all three music, sports and Mandarin-language services in August, while in the other months may follow the launch of general entertainment, news, business and Japanese-language services.

In addition, the encoding systems for the northern beam was in NTSC, while the southern beam had the PAL encoding system. There were other expected rumors that STAR TV was going to launch a Hindi-language TV channel for the success of the five new TV channels.

STAR TV's service were able to be seen via satellite dishes all across Asia and the Middle East, except for Malaysia and Singapore, which don't allow satellite dishes to protect its musilm population from contagion by undesirable values.

Otherwise, the STAR TV's service in India was broadcast from satellite dishes hammered out from old car tops. The signals later, was redistributed along with a bunch of wires in the back alleys of Bombay and Calcutta.

After a year of its operation, the service saw 11.16 million households across its suitable region receiving the service. It had reached as many as 18 million households by 1994.

In 1993, Goldman Sachs became an exclusive advisor to Hutchison Whampoa Limited and the Li family for the largest merger to date.

In February 1993, Julian Mounter, both of which a former director-general of Television New Zealand and a one-time BBC reporter at the time, was appointed as a president and a chief executive of HutchVision, the parent corporation of the STAR TV Network.

In April 1993, STAR TV joined ranks with its rival Asia Business News, being part of the STAR TV Network's plan to build an multi-partner television service.

By 1993, STAR TV's bookings for advertising were Audi, Canon, Coca-Cola, Hennessy, Levi Strauss, MasterCard, Mobil, Motorola, NEC, Nike, Panasonic, Pepsi-Cola, Reebok, Sony, Sharp, Shell and Toshiba.

Julian Mounter stated that if they extend their lead for two years by launching the AsiaSat 2 satellite. The corporation also signed four companies, including programme distributors, to settle across six pay-TV channels on April 1994. While Mounter described that programmes might include English and Mandarin movie channels, a business channel, a children's channel, a entertainment channel compared to STAR Plus, and what was supposed to be an documentary channel. With the launch of AsiaSat 2, STAR TV would've had broadcast as many as 100 channels.

On 6 June 1993, Wharf Cable had signed a deal with the STAR TV Network to broadcast as three channels on the service, such as WSTV, MTV and Prime Sports. On October of that year, STAR TV provided four-channels, comparing with Wharf's own two, such as an feature-film channel, a family entertainment channel, and a business news channel. While another was being an Chinese-language channel.

During the same month, STAR TV opened eight new offices across the Asian region, and also expanding the four existing offices.

In July 1993, it was announced that Rupert Murdoch, under its company News Corporation will acquire STAR TV. A month earlier, Rupert Murdoch was supposed to acquire 22% of shares from TVB, but due to the regularity issues about companies outside the country acquiring free-to-air networks, it was cancelled. News Corporation acquired the shares of 63.6% of the STAR TV service from HutchVision for $525 million.

HutchVision (officially known as STAR TV) filed an lawsuit over ATV (Asia Television) in Hong Kong on 8 September 1993, and was stated that in the end that ATV was entitled to its costs of many things before HutchVision did.

On 17 April 1994, WSTV was removed in the Chinese, Korean and Japanese satellite TV beam. The removal came when the Mainland China banned satellite dishes and forced to let cable companies only broadcast channels with mainland-produced content, with one of the reasons was for Murdoch's attitude.

The removal of WSTV resulted in a creation of STAR Movies, and spawned several feeds, including the Chinese-language movie channel and the variation of the English-language movie channel, while WSTV continued to broadcast on the Southern beam.

During the same month, HutchVision signed an three-year deal with ATV to begin the long-term cooperation for its programming and the co-productions, the deal came in few months after the lawsuit and after an previous programme supply deal made in 1991, that it were foundered due to an contractual dispute.

STAR TV acquired ATV's one-thousand hours of primetime dramas and special programmes, being dubbed in Mandarin Chinese. ATV provided dubbing and other facilties for the STAR TV Network. ATV and STAR TV co-produced fewer than 40 hours of dramas per year, and was broadcast on ATV in Cantonese, while STAR TV showed them in Mandarin.

STAR TV also bought an library of more than 570 Chinese-language films from Raymond Chow's Golden Harvest company and was recently signed an licensing deal of more than 50 films to be produced by the next three years by the Media Asia Group.

In May, MTV left the STAR TV Network, resulting in the launch of Channel V. When Channel V was launched, the channel was rebranded with the branding package designed by Novocom.

In September 1994, STAR TV was announced to get six new channels onto the service.

In 1995, STAR TV started its plans to launch thirty new channels onto the service by the Summer of that year when their satellite services switch to AsiaSat 2. The new channels will allow the STAR TV Network to customize its services for many regions and cultures.

The three channels will include an Filipino-language channel (entitled as Viva Cinema, now Pinoy Box Office), an Hindi-language channel that it will be operational in July 1996 and a English-language music service that will compare with Hindi-language and Chinese-language music services.

On 30 March 1996, STAR TV split STAR Plus and the Chinese Channel, with the Chinese Channel being in Taiwan and in some parts of the Mainland China, while most parts of Mainland China and Hong Kong replaced this channel with the Phoenix Chinese Channel; and Plus being in India and the Middle East, while STAR World being broadcasted in the rest of the region. On the same day, the network was rebranded with the branding package by 3 Ring Circus.

In April 1996, the service will launch in Japan on the Monday.

In 1998, Zee TV asked for mergers in between STAR TV's Indian service. During the same year, STAR TV had signed an four-year output deal with MGM, to launch a new movie channel dedicated to MGM movies. In addition, STAR TV was planning to launch Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and Punjabi language channels.

In November 1998, STAR TV's channels were supposed to be withdrawn from the Indovision service by the second week of December 1998. The lawsuit itself was closed in April 1999, where STAR TV agreed to not sell its channels anywhere in Indonesia. During the same month, STAR TV and Phoenix signed an deal with CNE, to replace the CNE channel with Phoenix Europe, a Chinese channel that broadcast Phoenix's entertainment and news content to European audiences and will launch in August.

On 3 August 2000, STAR TV signed an five-year deal with Media Asia Group, giving the exclusive pay-TV and internet film rights.

In 2001, STAR TV, along with seven pay-TV channels owned by the company was rebranded by Static Design, a broadcast design arm of Static 2358, which has been defunct. Static Design won an pitch competition between Razorfish and Velvet (which the two designed Disney Channel's idents).

In October 2002, it had announced that STAR TV will produce many of the music-themed programmes for the Channel V service in the Mainland Chinese market.

In 2006, STAR TV co-produced the high-definition TV series *Angel* from MediaCorp Studios, and was aired on the Chinese Channel in Taiwan. In addition, Star Chinese Movies had announced its investment in three high-definition films (one of which was *Pandora's Booth*), produced by Derek Yee Tung-sing. The National Geographic Channel was involved in producing 1,000 hours of high-definition programming in Asia (excluding Japan).

In 2007, STAR TV signed an joint-venture with Balaji Telefilms, to launch local channels across India.

In January 2007, STAR TV appointed Jack Gao, the former head of Microsoft and AutoDesk China, as a CEO.

On 1 March 2007, chief-executive officer Michelle Guthrie resigned from the company, which led Paul Aiello (the president of the STAR TV Network) succeeding as a top executive.

In October 2007, it was announced that David Butorac and the senior vice-president of programming, Ross Crowley would both resign from the company.

In 2009, News Corporation was announced to split STAR TV's operations. The change caused several workers to lose their jobs. However, during the change, the corporation did not change its legal name, the corporation did so on 2 September 2014, rebranding to Fox International Channels Asia Pacific, bearing the owner's (Fox International Channels') name with the brand being used in the UK and other European territories.

With the new name being broadcasted towards; the same thing will happen as Star channels will be branded as "Fox" channels with brands from international regions. For example, STAR Movies was rebranded to Fox Movies Premium on 1 January 2012, ESPN was rebranded as Fox Sports in 2013, STAR Sports was rebranded as Fox Sports 2 in 2014, and finally STAR World being rebranded as Fox Life in 2017. STAR Cricket continues to be the part of Fox Networks Group' suppliment in Hong Kong and Singapore; in fact using the brand used by STAR Sports 3, an Indian TV channel.

In July 2013, Fox International Channels Asia Pacific had broadcast the new series SCM Cine, a entertainment news show on the Star Chinese Movies channel, airing there on weekends, appearing once in two weeks.

On 18 November 2013, it had announced that Fox International Channels (the Asia Pacific arm, alternative name was called STAR TV) hired Helena Choe as the Vice President of Syndication. In the next month, the company also did the same for Rahul Sood, being the Vice Presidents of Affilate Sales and Commercial on 9 December.

In December 2013, the Asian Television Awards had given the Fox International Channels' service in Asia a award, titled as the "Cable & Satellite Network of the Year".

On 1 April 2014, Fox International Channels had announced that it had enhanced its roles for two each of its senior executives. Joon Lee, then known as a Executive Vice President of Content and Communications for its Asia-Pacific arm's countries that its channels were broadcasted on (also oversaw other channels, content and marketing across its areas), had its role changed to having a additional role of the Managing Director across Asia, with full profit and loss responsiblity. Simeon Dawes, then known as a Executive Vice President of Advertising Sales and Partnerships across the Asian region, had its role changed to a Managing Director across the Middle East, with full profit and loss responsiblity, and with the company's Dubai manager reporting to him.

On 14 July 2014, Fox International Channels had announced that it will broadcast any of its channels' more than 25 shows, just within days and/or hours from its original premiere, depending from either the America, South Korea or the country where the content had originated from. Fox International Channels had announced to launch its "Express" campaign on 15 July 2014.

In December 2014, the Asian Television Awards had given Fox International Channels Asia Pacific several awards in its programming across several categories.

Once again, in December 2015, the Asian Television Awards had given Fox International Channels Asia Pacific several awards in its programming across the top-tier categories, and got the TV network highly commended in the "Cable & Satellite Network of the Year" award.

In 2016, Fox International Channels Asia Pacific was rebranded as Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, following the rebrand of its owner.

On 7 March 2017, Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific's new streaming service, Fox+, will launch in the Philippines, while being launched next in Singapore.

Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox's assets to The Walt Disney Company in March 2019, the latter will cut of its Hong Kong jobs of the Fox Networks Group within a few months. The change will only effect Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, as it got acquired by The Walt Disney Company along with most of the assets 21st Century Fox got.

The Walt Disney Company will not close its Quarry Bay offices, where its channels were serviced by PCCW. The company will also not let the cut affect local theater screenings, nor the Hong Kong Disneyland. The change took back to 1993, where STAR TV being acquired from News Corporation from PCCW.

The corporation was affected by a downfall made by Disney+ and its new sister streaming service, Disney+ Hotstar (which was actually founded as Hotstar in 2015). On 27 April 2021, Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific have to close most of the channels (including Fox, Fox Crime, Fox Life, FX, Channel V, Fox Movies, Fox Action Movies, Fox Family Movies, STAR Movies China, Fox Sports, Fox Sports 2, Fox Sports 3, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Nat Geo People and Star Chinese Movies Legend), and also not affecting Star Chinese Channel, Star Chinese Movies, National Geographic and National Geographic Wild for a greater future which will hold on with the Disney+ streaming services.

Last time, it affected Fox Sports and its group of networks as they will not introduce most sport events such as Formula One, Australia Open, U.S. Open, Wimbledon and French Open. For Fox Movies, the channel and its sister channels will no longer get access from new content that Walt Disney Studios released.

With this affected many Disney staff, the corporation came up with a new staffing structure. Several people left the company such as a Singaporean marketing head Daniel Tan, Asian head of studio marketing Shoba Martin and Tom Batchelor. The decision was criticised in many markets, as some people had their network slow to access Disney+.

In Taiwan, Fox and Fox Movies dropped the "Fox" name and had replaced it with the "Star" name. The Disney Channel would cease its operations also. Both of these events occured at 1 January 2022.

On 14 June 2023, Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific announced that it will close STAR World in Taiwan, STAR Movies Gold and HD in Taiwan, Star Chinese Channel, Star Chinese Movies, National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild by the end of the year. Outside Taiwan, its operations are due to close in September, leaving BabyTV as the only Disney-owned TV channel in the Asian market.

## Headquarters

Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific's headquarters were mainly based in Hung Hom, Hong Kong. Inarc Design helped to create interiors for the headquarters, and was completed in April 1995. The new interiors was given many positive comments and was thanked by the Inarc Design team. Also, the uplink and playout services were based in Clear Water Bay (now owned by Jackie Chan).

## Channels

### Current

* BabyTV
* National Geographic
	+ Nat Geo Wild
* Star Chinese Channel
* Star Chinese Movies

### Former

* Channel V
	+ China
	+ India
	+ Korea
	+ Taiwan
	+ Thailand
* Disney Channel
* Disney Junior
* FX
* Fox
* Fox Crime
* Fox Life
* Fox Movies
* Fox Sports
	+ Fox Sports 2
	+ Fox Sports 3
	+ STAR Sports China
	+ STAR Sports 2
* Granada UKTV
* Nat Geo Music
* STAR Movies China
* STAR News
* STAR World
* tvN (now fully owned by CJ E&M)

## References

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