English Entertainment
Women’s Day programming on Star World
MUMBAI: Did you know – Julia Louis-Dreyfus broke her own record at the Emmys to become the actor with the highest Emmy wins and the only actor to ever have won six consecutive times for the same role, for her show VEEP. Viola Davis is the only black actor to have ever won the Tony, Emmy and Oscar! Meryl Streep has yet again broken her own record to become the most nominated actor in the history of the Academy Awards!
These are not only Tinsel Town’s most powerful women but also essay women of tremendous substance on the small and big screen! With International Women’s Day right around the corner, Star World, India’s leading English Entertainment channel, is all set to take up the mammoth task of exposing viewers to a world that is conquered by powerful and talented women!
Star World will showcase some of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning shows that are being led by women on television all throughout March! With a surprising twist, the channel will take its quest for celebration higher by also showcasing three women-led movies back-to-back on Women’s Day!
Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway come together to leave their mark in the fashion industry in The Devil Wears Prada that will kick-start the Women’s Day line-up on 8th March at 12 PM.
Watch leading ladies Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu kick some butt in the era’s first big women-dominating blockbuster action movie – Charlie’s Angels that will continue the Women’s Day line-up on Star World at 2 PM!
Culminating the movie line-up on the channel is The Tourist that will air at 4 PM. With a sultry, power-packed performance by actor, humanist and Hollywood’s talent powerhouse Angelina Jolie, Star World celebrates her achievements through the showcasing of this compelling romantic thriller, ideal for a Women’s Day watch.
That’s not all. The channel that is known for airing some of the best, most award-winning content on television will celebrate women all month!
Commencing the month-long, weekend line-up is the multiple award-winning, political satire comedy series VEEP on 2nd & 3rd March from 12 PM onwards starring one of the most celebrated television actors and comedians, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. As protagonist of the series, Dreyfus plays US Vice President Selina Meyer, a role has won her international acclaim from audiences, critics and award juries alike.
Want another inspirational show to rejoice womanhood? What better way than showcase the story of the first woman to break the gender barrier in Major League Baseball! Pitch will air on 10th & 11th March from 12 PM onwards.
Max and Caroline’s unfailing chemistry and saucy humour is a testament to lasting bonds between women world over. Catch these feisty women as they embark on a priceless adventure while waiting tables and planning their mega-successful cupcake venture on 2 Broke Girls on 17th & 18th March from 12 PM onwards!
What happens when two of Hollywood’s most prominent, highest paid, award-winning women performers butt heads? Catastrophe. Star World will drum up the drama with Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Bette and Joan starring an all-women powerhouse of acting talent including Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange and Catherine Zeta Jones. Feud: Bette and Joan will air on 24th & 25th March from 12 PM onwards.
Other series on Star World this March, fronted by women and for women include the Priyanka Chopra starrer ‘Quantico’, Stana Katic’s ‘Castle’, Claire Danes-led ‘Homeland’, Mandy Moore starrer ‘This Is Us’ and Viola Davis’ ‘How To Get Away with Murder’!
From politics to comedy, films to television, corporates to contemporary art, women are at the forefront of all industries today. So, let’s celebrate some of the most remarkable actors on television and the contributions they have made in empowering real women through reel characters all March only on Star World!
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.
