MUMBAI: Star Sports - India’s leading sports broadcaster, today announced the launch of Star Sports1 Bangla, a dedicated sports channel for sports fanatics in their very own language; Bengali. The channel launch is in-line with Star Sports’ commitment to foster a multi-sports culture in the country while bringing fans closer to the sporting ecosystem.
A first-of-its-kind regional sports channel, Star Sports1 Bangla will bring fans across West Bengal closer to their favorite sports and heroes. The channel has a rich calendar of sports – starting with the VIVO IPL 2019, moving into the most anticipated event of the year ICC Cricket World Cup, VIVO Pro Kabaddi Season 7 and the Hero ISL. The channel would provide curated Bengali content localized to various franchise like Kolkata Knight Riders, Bengal Warriors, ATK, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.
A Star India spokesperson said, “West Bengal is a unique market with high affinity to language content and very distinctive viewing habits. Nuances of the game and local flavour add to a fan’s viewing experience and builds a local affinity for sports in the region. With the VIVO IPL, followed by the ICC World Cup this year – it is indeed a ‘Summer of Cricket’ on Star Sports, and with Star Sports 1 Bangla, we have taken one more step towards treating fans to a customised and acquainted exposure”.
Indulging viewers from the onset, the channel delivered a gusto experience with ‘Ebar Khelbe Bangla’ hosted by Kolkata’s very own Boria Majumdar. This panel discussion encompassed sporting stalwarts from the region discussing sports and the need of regional sports channels in the country. During the discussion the panellists unanimously agreed that the launch of a dedicated Bangla sports channel will bring back the love for sport among youth in the region.
Speaking about the launch of a dedicated Bangla channel, the acclaimed panellists expressed their views on regional sporting channels in the country.
Sourav Ganguly, former Indian cricketer and captain of the Indian National team and President of the Cricket Association of Bengal, said, “It was a beautiful day today and a great experience shooting for Star Sports Bangla. Sports is a part of every Bengali’s life and launching a dedicated Bengali sports channel is a great initiative. This platform will help sports reach out to people in faraway places and people, who don’t understand English or Hindi. With this initiative, Star Sports will be able to reach every nook and corner of the West Bengal market and dish out sport stars.”
Jhulan Goswami, all round cricketer and former captain of Indian National Women's cricket team, said, “The launch of a dedicated Bengali sports channel in my opinion is going to be good fun. A few months back I watched the Star Sports Tamil dedicated sports channel, so I saw couple of cricket matches on the channel and I found it very interesting, As a viewer if you see sports in your own language and televised, it looks very interesting, of course when I watched Star Sports Tamil, I did not understand the language, but I did understand the emotional connect that viewers may have.”
Mehuli Ghosh, National Level Shooting Athlete, said, “A dedicated sports channel is a very good idea for Bengali speaking audiences in the region because many of the people have Bengali as their first language and English and Hindi is not spoken too much here especially in the hinterlands, so I think everyone will enjoy sports with this new offering from Star Sports. It will make Bengali speaking audiences proud. My advice to the youngsters in the region is to please watch sports and follow sports especially since there is a dedicated channel to cover sports in Bengali.”
Pronay Halder, Indian Footballer, said, “Star Sports Bangla is a great initiative, as it offers audiences sporting entertainment in their own mother tongue. I would urge every youngster to watch this sports channel and support it, tune-in to not only watch football, but cricket, hockey and other sports as well.”
Joydeep Karmarkar, Shooter, said, “Till date, all we have had to watch in a Bengali sports channel, are short sports bulletin, or sports news clubbed with the main news. For the first time, we will have a dedicated sports channel where sports will be aired 24*7 in your mother tongue with is great. With Star Sports Bangla, sports will now, not only reach people in Kolkata but also across West Bengal, to every household. For me personally this shoot was a great experience, the coming together of ex-players and upcoming players was indeed great, I got to learn and imbibe so much from them. This initiative for me feels like a mission to bring sports into the lives of the youngsters and with the support of Star Sports Bangla, it looks good.
Fans can catch all the action LIVE on Star Sports 1 Bangla, the Star Sports Network and Hotstar.
