English Entertainment
Star World to enthrall crime-fiction lovers with new programming slot ‘Crime @ 10’
Star World, India’s leading English Entertainment channel, is renowned for being ahead of the curve. From binging on weekends to watching shows along with the U.S, the channel has been at the forefront of recognizing trends and meeting entertainment demands of viewers. Taking their offerings a notch higher, the channel is now all set to introduce an-all new programming slot – Crime @ 10, dedicated to crime thrillers with edge-of-the-seat drama, plot twists, action-packed moments and gripping content!
With a slew of some of the most fan-favourite shows, Crime @ 10 will captivate television screens every Monday to Friday at 10 PM only on Star World and Star World HD.
The line-up has kick started with hit TV series ‘The Listener’ that aired on 13th February at 10 PM. Starring Canadian actor Craig Olejnik as the protagonist Toby Logan, the series also stars Lauren Lee Smith from the Oscar nominated film The Shape of Water, Anthony Lemke of Dark Matter and RoboCop fame, Kris Holden-Ried of Ben Hur, Arrow and Underworld fame and Melanie Scrofano from Designated Survivor among others! The series follows the life of Toby Logan who plays a paramedic with telepathic powers. As he consults with law enforcement, he helps victims while listening to their thoughts and seeing the images seen by them to lessen crime and make the society a better place.
Next in line is the multiple People’s Choice Award winning crime thriller ‘Castle’ starring beloved duo – detective Kate Beckett (played by Stana Katic) and award-winning mystery novelist, Richard Castle (played by Nathan Fillion). The series will start on 21st March at 10 PM and follows the lives of Beckett and Castle as one uses his imagination and the other uses her detective skills and cop training, to solve gruesome crimes together! The audience-favourite TV series has also earned top nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards and stars This Is Us fame Jon Huertas and veteran actor Susan Sullivan among others!
Following suit is yet another crime-thriller – Fox’s longest running drama series ‘Bones’! Starring Emily Deschanel of films Glory, Boogeyman, Spider-Man 2 and My Sister’s Keeper among others along with David Boreanaz of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel fame, the series has known to have a steady fan base right from its inception to its end. The series that enjoyed immense popularity and even some awards along the way follows the duo – Forensic Anthropologist, Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan (Emily) and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (David) as they solve Federal legal cases by examining the human remains of possible murder victims. Bones will air starting 23rd April at 10 PM!
Culminating the Crime @10 line-up is the widely popular police procedural crime drama series, ‘Rosewood’ starring protagonist Morris Chestnut who is known for his roles in notable movies and TV shows such as Golden Globe winning series Goliath as well as Boyz n the Hood, The Perfect Guy, Kick-Ass 2, The Game Plan, Ladder 49, Nurse Jackie, Legends and more! Rosewood follows the life of Dr. Beaumont Rosewood Jr. (Chestnut) – a private pathologist working in Miami, Florida who is in high demand with the law enforcement. But Rosewood, whose rare heart condition could kill him at any moment is more interested in giving second opinions to friends and family of the deceased when they aren’t convinced with police findings! The series also stars Lorraine Toussaint of Orange is the New Black and Selma, Domenick Lombardozzi of The Wire, Bridge of Spies, Boardwalk Empire fame, Eddie Cibrian of CSI: Miami among others. Rosewood will start on 23rd April 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.
