English Entertainment
Star World lines up Hollywood A-listers’ shows starting 25 Sept
MUMBAI: Meryl Streep and Al Pacino, around 10 years ago, debuted on television with ‘Angels in America’ and the media went into a frenzy – ‘Is it the Oscars or the Emmys’, tabloids flashed as they walked the Emmys red carpet! Little did we know that a new-age trend was being set!
Today, Hollywood’s biggest and best actors are increasingly being seen on the small screen as television continues to boom with complex character arcs, intricate plotlines and large scale productions!
In India, Star World will provide its viewers an unforgettable television viewing experience with a line-up of the biggest H-town actors in ‘Hollywood A-Listers’. A three-month long slot that starts on25 September, ‘Hollywood A-Listers’ will showcase some of the most critically and popularly acclaimed shows every Monday toFriday at 10pm. Big Little Lies, Feud: Bette and Joan, True Detective, Ballers and Shots Fired are the shows that will add drama, action and tinsel town glamour to TV this fall.
Big Little Lies
Kick-starting this line-up, is the thrilling series Big Little Lies, that is directed by Oscar nominated directed Jean-Marc Vallee and stars Hollywood’s biggest stars including Oscar winning actors Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman and The Fault in Our Stars lead actress Shailene Woodley. The series reveals the conflicts, secrets and betrayals of suburban mothers in a seemingly “picture perfect” town. The series has also won a whopping 16 awards at the 69th Primetime Emmy awards this year. Unravel the dark truths and secrets of a seaside California town with Big Little Lies, only on Star World and Star World HD on 25 September, Monday – Friday at 10 PM.
Feud: Bette and Joan
Based one of the biggest and most talked about feuds in Hollywood “Feud: Bette and Joan” stars Oscar winning actors Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange who ironically portray the roles of Oscar Winning actresses – Bette Davis and Joan Crawford respectively. The eight-episode mini-series recalls how Davis and Crawford struggled to hang on to fame in the twilight of their careers as they faced obstacles such as ageism, sexism and misogyny. The show has successfully bagged a staggering 18 Emmy awards this year. Catch this sensational battle between the Hollywood divas on Feud: Bette and Joan only on Star World and Star World HD starting 4 October, Monday –Friday at 10 PM.
True Detective Seasons 1 and 2
True Detective, an anthology series that revolves around police investigations that unearth cult crimes and murders. The exceptional performances by Academy award winning star Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelsen in season 1 are sure to reel you in while the style, vision and direction make it hard to turn away from this disturbing yet brilliant piece of television! This compelling jumble of philosophy, imagery and murder will come into full view with the premiere of True Detective Seasons 1 starting16th October, Monday – Friday at 10 PM. Season 2 of the series starring Rachel McAdams, Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn among others will air immediately after Season 1.
Ballers Seasons 1-3
Spend weeknights watching Dwayne Johnson ‘rock’ television screens with his hit series ‘Ballers’. Whirlwind lifestyles and real-life problems of former and current football players were never more exciting before Dwayne Johnson donned the hat of ex-superstar Spencer Strasmore in the series. Spencer, after battling through several knee injuries and retiring to little fanfare, reinvents himself as a financial manager for current and former players in sun-soaked Miami! Catch seasons 1-3 of the exciting action-packed journey of the NFL player-turned-financial advisor with Ballers only on Star World and Star World HD starting 7 November, Monday – Fridayat 10 PM.
Shots Fired
Culminating the line-up is the gripping drama ‘Shots Fired’, which will on Star World starting 30 November, Monday to Friday at 10 PM. A timely mystery drama thriller, Shots Fired is not just another police drama! The series is a compelling drama that draws inspiration from spate of murders of young black men by white cops in several American cities and towns. Armed with a stunning cast, the series stars Sanaa Lathan and Stephan James as investigators looking into the murder, along with Oscar winners Richard Dreyfuss and Helen Hunt as powerful figureheads pulled into the controversy.
From Nicole Kidman’s Big Little Lies to Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers and more, Star World is sure to take viewers on a ride through tinsel town with some of the most masterfully created, intricately written and powerfully acted television series starting from 25 September, weeknights at 10 PM.
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.
