English Entertainment
Latest shows on Star World throughout July
MUMBAI: Star World, an English Entertainment channel, has been a forerunner in introducing some of the most star-studded, critically acclaimed, popular and award-winning shows to its audiences. This monsoon, get ready to enjoy a power-packed line up of TV shows that will be launching throughout the month on the channel.
Veep: Kick-starting the line-up is a political satire called ‘Veep’ starring comic genius Julia Louis Dreyfus who has broken the record for winning 5 Emmy awards in a row for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for this show alone. Veep follows Selina Meyer’s (Dreyfus) hilarious, awkward and, sometimes, embarrassing journey from Vice President to the President of the United States of America. Catch Seasons 1 – 4 of Veep on Star World from 6 July weekdays at 8 PM!
Have you wondered about what goes on behind the cameras of a reality television show? Tune-in to Star World from 17 July weekdays at 9 PM and watch ‘UnReal’ Seasons 1 – 3; you’ll know everything there is to know! Starring Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer among others, UnReal revolves around the life of Rachel, a young reality television producer, pushed by her unscrupulous boss to swallow her integrity and do anything it takes to drum up salacious show content that will spike ratings. The show takes an exciting, deep and dark dive into the ethics of reality-television producing along with gender equity in the workplace. The show will be airing on a dedicated slot called ‘Star World Recommends’ that will be synonymous with airing must-watch shows.
TLO Nora and Kevin 1 BK: Keeping up with the dramatic momentum, the critically acclaimed and star-studded series The Leftovers, Seasons 1 – 2 will premiere on the channel on 17th July, weekdays at 10 PM. Based on the book of the same name by Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers starts three years after a global event called the ‘Sudden Departure’ results in an inexplicable, simultaneous disappearance of 140 million people, 2% of the world’s population. The excellent performances by the series cast featuring Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon, Christopher Eccleston and Amy Brenneman are sure to keep viewers on the edge of the seat.
It may seem like the excitement is over, but it has only begun as ‘The Great War is Here’, finally! The penultimate Season 7, of TV’s biggest show, ‘Game of Thrones’, is due to uncover some of the largest theories! So viewers can hold on to their seats as they bear witness to ruthless killing, action-packed battle scenes and war sequences, momentous prophecies coming alive and the many twists and turns every Tuesday from 18 July onwards at 11 PM on Star World! Will the plot see an uneasy alliance forged between Cersei, Daenerys and Jon to fight against the White Walkers?
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
