UMP Stars makes official launch on Sky Digital
The Disney owned Bollywood entertainment channel, UMP Stars has launched in the UK today.
The channel joins UMP Movies, which has done incredibly well since its launch on the Sky Digital platform last December. UMP Stars, which is known as UTV Stars in India, has been changed in the UK due to copyright issues over an existing Irish channel in this territory, similar to UMP Movies.
Disney UTV executive director- Youth Channels, Media Networks Nikhil Gandhi said, “We are launching Stars in UK, ahead of our plan after seeing its success in India. We already have a very successful Hindi movie channel in UK (UMP Movies) and UMP Stars will further add to the Bollywood quotient and increase our foothold in the diaspora.”
The channel will broadcast free-to-air on Sky Digital EPG 853. Like UMP Movies, the ad sales of UMP Stars will be handled by Sky Media, while TVMedia3.com, which distributes Disney UTV Channels in UK and Europe, will handle distribution. The initial marketing of the channel is being handled by World Media Connect who successfully dealt with the launch of UMP Movies.
UMP Stars’ content primarily consists of Bollywood music, features and non-fiction programming and news segments. It is touted as the Official Bollywood Channel. It will be the first Asian channel in the UK to broadcast in 16:9 widescreen ratio. The channel broadcasts in HD in India and has content ready in high standard quality for UK viewers.
Gandhi said, “50 per cent of our FPC is dedicated to music as we are catering to the youth audiences and music is an integral part of Bollywood. But in primetime we have all new content. Our content is not run of the mill that other channels air. Because of this, we are getting better subscription and ad revenues.”
Read the full interview with Nikhil Gandhi on BizAsia today.