Red FM....

As many of you would know, a brand new English Radio station called Red FM launched a few weeks ago, this was a replacement to "Your Radio" which was in operation previously. Although frequencies were allocated last year along with the re-organisation of radio frequencies in Sri Lanka, the station did take a long time to commence transmissions.

The radio station which mainly plays 90's music has poor transmission quality. The volume levels are muffled compared to other stations. Coverage is an issue despite the fact that these are islandwide frequencies. This we believe is due to poor transmission equipment.

We hope the management of Red FM take steps in rectifying these problems and we wish them the very best in their future endeavors.

Star Sports 2 to launch as a brand new channel

Contrary to previous beliefs that Star Sports 2 is actually "ESPN India" rebranded. It has been confirmed that Star Sports 2 is actually a brand new channel launched by ESPN Star Sports. The launch will take place on March 11th 2013 and international football will be it's driver content. It will also showcase other sporting content.

It's very likely that football content such as English Premier League, Spanish League & the French League will gradually be shifted to the new channel.

The ESPN rebranding exercise will take place as soon as the 100% acquisition of ESPN Star Sports is given the green light by the Indian government. ESPN India will mostly like be rebranded as Fox Sports India to reflect the rest of Asia or will be another Star Sports most likely Star Sports 3.

Source: Star to launch a new sports channel on 11 March - indiantelevision.com

Star Sports 2 to launch soon

According to advertisements running on Star Sports / Star Cricket, Star Sports 2 will be launching soon in the subcontinent. It's highly unlikely to a new rather, rather ESPN India will rebrand as Star Sports 2. In the rest of Asia "ESPN" rebranded as Fox Sports Asia due to ESPN parent company exiting the 50/50 Joint venture and Newscorp operators of Fox/Sky/Star Sports increasing their 50% stake in ESPN Star Sports to 100%.

ESPN will reenter the Sports broadcasting business in Asia after consolidating their other businesses in the region and after the completion of the "non-competitive" clause which spans 4 to 5 years in the event of the joint venture ending. So ESPN will likely reenter this market after 2017 or 2018.

With the sale and rebranding of ESPN in other regions of Asia to Fox Sports, India's Star Network was weighing the options of rebranding ESPN India to either Fox Sports India or as another Star Sports channel. It looks like the decision has been made and ESPN India will become Star Sports 2 and ESPN HD will relaunch as Star Sports HD on the same day or down the line a few days/weeks later.

It should be said that more India focused sports will become increasingly become available on Star Sports 2 owing to the regionalisation of Fox International Channels. There is nothing that our local pay television operators can do about this since, sports telecast rights are so complex & prevents our pay operators from securing Fox Sports Asia into this region.

There are some rumours that Star Sports 2 maybe a separate channel altogether but it's highly unlikely since it is increasingly becoming clear that ESPN India would be relaunched as Star Sports 2.