MUMBAI: After announcing the launch of Star Sports 1 Telugu, Star India is all set to unveil its fourth regional channel after Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 1 Tamil and Star Sports 1 Telugu (launching on 7 December). The next language market of focus for the company is Kannada and the channel is likely to go on air on 30 December 2018, a source close to the development informed Indiantelevision.com.

Star Sports 1 Kannada testing is in process on AsiaSat 7 at 105 degree east. Star Sports 1 Telugu is also being tested on the same satellite.

Star India's attempt at securing an exclusive sports channel for its Kannada viewers didn’t see the light of day for the 11th season of IPL. Regulatory hurdles made the broadcaster switch the Kannada feed to Star Suvarna Plus.

In an interview with Indiantelevision.com, Star Sports CEO Gautam Thakar had said that Kannada and Telugu were going to be priority language markets.

Under the new tariff order, Star Sports 1 Kannada (30 December) and Star Sports 1 Telugu (7 December) have been priced at Rs 19 for TV consumers.

In September this year, Star Sports also launched Star Sports 3, a multi-lingual channel in place of Channel V.

Towards the end of last year Star India contemplated taking Channel V off air, with Star Sports 1 Kannada as its substitute, with 16 November 2017 having been fixed as the launch date.

However, the broadcaster was unable to get the necessary approval from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB).

Star Sports currently boasts of 14 channels, including Star Sports 1 Telugu, in its bouquet, with nine Standard Definition (SD) and five High Definition (HD) channels. Star Sports 1 Kannada will increase the count to 15.