Mumbai: Disney Star India is likely to phase out its English general entertainment channels Star World, Star World HD, and Star World Premiere HD, as per details in its reference interconnection offer (RIO) published on 15 October.

The broadcaster published the tariffs of 78 channels out of which the English GECs were absent. According to Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India, the English GECs account for less than one per cent of total TV advertising spends. The fall of English GECs was first sounded when the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) implemented the new tariff regime that required subscribers to select only the TV channels that they actually watched.

The migration of English viewers to OTT platforms and the pandemic that began last year has made the English GEC genre extremely unviable for Indian broadcasters from a business perspective.

A response from the Star network is awaited and we will update this piece if we receive any.