Indian pay-television broadcaster Star Sports has launched Star Sports First, a new free-to-air channel.
The channel will debut on July 21 and will be available via direct-to-home service DD Freedish.
Star Sports First will provide coverage in Hindi. According to the Indian Television news website, the new channel will show coverage of India’s Pro Kabaddi League, which commences its new season on July 28.
The channel is also set to feature cricket and football coverage.
A Star India spokesperson told Indian Television: “Television penetration in India has grown exponentially. We recognise that there is a very sizeable subset of this universe that is not on conventional pay-TV. In the ‘free-to-air’ content that they have access to, sports content is mostly absent and only sporadically available.
“It is our belief that there is, however, an eager appetite for it and that is the reason to launch SS First. We believe tens of millions of fans will be created for many different sports offerings through our content bouquet.”
The introduction of the new channel comes after Star Sports launched Star Sports Tamil, a new Tamil-language channel, in May.