Asian Television Network International (ATN), Canada’s largest South Asian broadcaster, has acquired the exclusive Canadian rights from Disney Star to carry four of its channels.
Acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2009, Disney Star is one of the largest media conglomerates in India, operating over 70 TV channels that reach over 90% of audiences in the country.
The company’s Star Plus, Star Gold, Star Vijay and Vijay Super channels will be carried in Canada alongside ATN branding. The addition of these channels provides brands with additional opportunities for reaching Canada’s growing South Asian population.
“We tremendously value our relationship with all of our highly successful programming partners from around the world,” says Shan Chandrasekar, president and CEO of ATN. “We are now delighted to be associated with one of the largest and most reputable media conglomerates, Disney Star. We expect to attract a much larger audience through Disney Star’s compelling content, which would enhance our subscription and advertising revenues.”
Star Plus, India’s leading Hindi general entertainment television channel, features a wide range of programming such as family dramas, reality shows and special events, including Anupamaa (pictured, above). Its primetime programming is consistently among the top five shows on Hindi language television. Star Gold is a Hindi movie channel known as “The Home of Blockbusters.” It caters to entertainment for the entire family through one of the largest and most varied libraries of Indian movies.
Star Vijay is a leading Tamil general entertainment channel with a lineup that includes shows drama series, reality shows and Tamil films. The channel features one of the most popular Tamil reality shows, Bigg Boss. It is also home to other popular reality shows such as Super Singer, Neeya Naana, Cooku with Comali and Kalakka Povadhu Yaaru. Vijay Super is a Tamil movie channel that shows major blockbuster Tamil movies. It also airs Tamil-dubbed versions of popular Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English movies.
The four channels join ATN’s roster of more than 50 specialty channels that serve Canada’s diverse cultural communities. Those ATN-HD and seven other general interest channels, three sports channels, seven news channels and five Bollywood movie channels.
