English Entertainment
Star World and Star World Premiere HD announce their new show line-up
MUMBAI: Star World and Star World Premiere HD reveal an exciting line up for the summer of 2014. The two channels have come up with the most thrilling and entertaining TV shows for its viewers to watch. The shows will include drama, romance, comedy and more all in the months to follow.
Star World Premiere HD which launched in September 2013, has already taken the TV viewers by storm with its dynamic content. The channel is a pioneering initiative by the Star network to present brand new content to their Indian audiences with the latest seasons of their favorite shows. The new line up include shows like Masterchef Australia , Masterchef US ,Family Guy, Californication, Nurse Jackie, Gang Related, Helix and Archer among others.
Masterchef Australia (Season 6) -. 'MasterChef' is a unique cooking competition testing amateur budding chefs to the limit with a series of tough challenges judged by culinary experts. From dishes prepared in the studio, cooking for the rich and famous, to surviving the kitchens of top restaurants, the pressure is on to find the Master Chef at the end of each season. As a high-end, prime time spectacular, MasterChef in Australia has become a broadcasting phenomenon breaking all audience records.
Masterchef USA (Season 5) – MasterChef is a U.S. competitive cooking reality show, open to amateur and home chefs. Amateur chefs are initially selected through nationwide auditions, selecting a total of one hundred competitors to the start of the televised competition.
Family Guy ( Season 13) – The series centers on the Griffins, a family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian. The show is set in the fictional city of Quahog, Rhode Island, and exhibits much of its humor in the form of cutaway gags that often lampoon American culture.
Californication ( Season 7) – The final season of the series starts on 6th May. The show revolves around Hank Moody, a novelist plagued by personal demons. He blames his longtime writer's block on reasons ranging from the hedonism of Los Angeles to the departure of his girlfriend Karen. Hank constantly deals with the consequences of his inability to say "no" to temptation while trying to show his family that he can be a responsible, caring father to Becca and a monogamous partner to Karen.
Nurse Jackie ( Season 6) – This dark comedy series starts on Star World Premiere on 26th May. Starring Emmy Award winning actress Edie Falco the show takes place in the surreal world of a New York City hospital, where Falco plays Jackie, a nurse battling the insanity of everyday life in the American health care system. Jackie is a genius at what she does, but she's also a deeply troubled woman, with looming shadows of prescription drug addiction and her lapsed Catholic faith always appearing in the background.
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Gang Related ( Season 1) – Revolves around Ryan Lopez, a gang member sent in to infiltrate the San Francisco Police Department and rise through its ranks who must balance his obligations to his crime family, the gang from his old neighborhood, with an increasing sense of loyalty to his new family, the SFPD's Gang Task Force.
Helix ( Season 1) – The series follows a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control who travel to a research facility in the Arctic to investigate a potential outbreak of disease. While there, they find themselves stuck in a life-or-death situation that could decide the fate of the future of mankind.
Archer ( Season 5) – Sterling Archer is the world's most daunting spy. He works for ISIS, a spy agency run by his mother. In between dealing with his boss and his co-workers – one of whom is his ex-girlfriend – Archer manages to annoy or seduce everyone that crosses his path. His antics are only excusable because at the end of the day, he still somehow always manages to thwart whatever crises was threatening mankind.
Star World on the other hand have a spectacular lineup of shows including Once Upon a time, Homeland, House M.D. The channel presents a truly unique viewing experience and plans to bring back the classics on popular demand. Once Upon a time and House MD will be on air 19th May onwards whereas Homeland can be watched 1st May onwards.
Once Upon a time ( Season 1 -3)– OUAT is an American fairy tale drama series which takes place in the fictional seaside town of Storybrooke, Maine, whose residents are actually characters from various fairy tales transported to the "real world" town and robbed of their real memories by a powerful curse.
Homeland ( Season 1 -3) – Homeland is an American political thriller television series developed by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa based on the Israeli seriesHatufim. The series stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a Central Intelligence Agency officer with bipolar disorder, and Damian Lewis asNicholas Brody, a United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper. Mathison has come to believe that Brody, who was held captive by al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war, was "turned" by the enemy and now threatens the United States.
House MD ( Seadon 1 -8)- House (aka House MD), is a new take on mystery, where the villain is a medical malady and the hero is an irreverent, controversial doctor who trusts no one, least of all his patients. Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is devoid of bedside manner and wouldn't even talk to his patients if he could get away with it. Dealing with his own constant physical pain, he uses a cane that seems to punctuate his acerbic, brutally honest demeanor. While his behavior can border on antisocial, House is a maverick physician whose unconventional thinking and flawless instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect. An infectious disease specialist, he's a brilliant diagnostician who loves the challenges of the medical puzzles he must solve in order to save lives.
Talking about the occasion Kevin Vaz, General Manager (Star India Pvt. Ltd – English Bouquet) said, “ Over the years we have set the lineup of shows according to our viewers demands. Our selection covers multiple genres like Drama, Comedy and Animation which will reach out to a wider audience. Star World & Star World Premiere HD promise to be exciting destinations for the best TV viewing this summer .”
So spend this summer watching your favorite shows on Star World and Star World Premiere HD with the best in TV entertainment. The channel have strived to cater to the viewing needs of the audience today with shows covering diverse genres like action, comedy, drama, romance and fantasy leaving nothing to want for.
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.
