Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific was a Hong Kong–based commercial broadcasting company operating multiple specialty television channels.

[2] There were talks of the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation holding shares in the company, with its main goal being delivering its programming abroad.

[3][4] The company operated its television channels under a unified brand, Star TV (Chinese: 衛星電視; pinyin: Wèixīng Diànshì; lit.

In 1993, Goldman Sachs became the exclusive advisor to Hutchison Whampoa Limited and the Li family in their largest Asian media merger to date.

[7] In February 1993, Julian Mounter, former director-general of Television New Zealand, was appointed as president and Chief Executive of the company.

While starting their pay-TV services, Julian Mounter — the chief executive and the president of HutchVision — stated that the company planned to launch the AsiaSat 2 satellite sometime in the subsequent two years.

The company was looking for an Anglophone partner for financial investments, along with additional English language programming and technical assistance.

[15] On 1 May 1993, Pearson approached Star TV's owners, seeking a partnership, and was expected to invest up to GBP 100 million.

[16][17] The initial negotiations with Rupert Murdoch were reported to have floundered after the Australian businessman demanded a controlling stake in the Hong Kong company.

[21][22] The Li family and Hutchison Whampoa would retain its shares in Hutchvision Hong Kong Limited, which uplinked Star TV's channels.

However, the plan was unsuccessful, with Star TV being forced to invest heavily into producing local shows for their Asian audience.

Sam Chisholm (head of BSkyB at the time) became acting Chief Executive of News Corporation before he was formally appointed.

[28] On 1 September 1993, in a speech Murdoch made in London coinciding with the start of Sky Multichannels and relayed to associates in Los Angeles, New York, Hong Kong and Sydney, Murdoch announced a plan to combine his synergies around the world to create a global network of television channels, as well as a potential partnership with TVB, who at the time had the largest Mandarin-language television library in the world.

[32] The decision was made while Star TV was considering the launch of a documentary and educational channel that two companies had a joint-venture in.

As part of the deal, Star TV acquired one-thousand hours annually of prime-time dramas and special programming dubbed in Mandarin Chinese.

[35] Star TV split its satellite signal to both northern and southern beams, resulting in a change for both operations.

Rathikant Basu also stated that the company was considering to launch four new regional channels spanning 4 languages:Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and Punjabi.

[50] By late-1999 to the early-2000s, Star TV used AsiaSat 3S and Palapa C2 to broadcast across Asia and the Middle East in 53 countries, with an audience of up to 300 million viewers.

The Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Kaun Banega Crorepati, and the Hindi Soap Opera Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, surpassed their rivals — Zee TV and Sony Entertainment Television — in ratings to become the most watched channel in Asia.

As of 2024, the 2001 logos are phased out from use by any Star TV channels since 2008, excluding Xing Kong, ANTV and tvOne's news programme Kabar.

In addition, Star Chinese Movies was announced to have invested in three high-definition films, to be produced by Derek Yee Tung-sing.

Additionally, the National Geographic Channel produced around one thousand hours of high-definition programming commissioned for the Asian market (excluding Japan).

In October 2013, 12.15% of shares in Phoenix Television held by 21st Century Fox (through Star) was sold to TPG Capital for HK$1.66 billion (about US$213.73 million).

Fox Networks Group Asia was split into three, as to plug into the Disney International structure with offices in Shanghai, Mumbai, and Singapore.

Following the shutdown, some of their employees (including Singapore-based marketing leads Daniel Tan and Shoba Martin) left the company.

[84] The decision to close the channels has been criticized due to poor Internet connectivity in some areas and the lack of a plan to rollout Disney+ to smaller regions.

[89] It was alleged that the PRC government was unhappy with BBC coverage of China[89] and Murdoch's September 1993 speech, which declared that "(telecommunications) have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere... satellite broadcasting makes it possible for information-hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state-controlled television channels.

"[89][90] The Beijing government threatened to block Star TV in the huge mainland Chinese market if the BBC was not withdrawn.

[90] There were also reported concerns surrounding editorial control of BBC WSTV after News Corporation's acquisition of Star TV.

[27] The subsequent removal of the BBC channel and many ensuing declarations from Murdoch led critics to believe the businessman was striving to appease the Chinese government in order to have the ban lifted.