Rupert Murdoch's Indian television unit has inked its first US cable distribution deal with Cox Communications, bringing three top Hindi-language channels to Northern Virginia, an Associated Press report said.
The report said viewers in one of the largest South Asian enclaves in the US will now be able to catch their favorite Bollywood flicks, Indian soaps and reality television shows on Star India Plus, Star India Gold and Star One.
'The deal with Cox Communications, which operates one of the nation's leading cable platforms, is an important one because it represents Star's first opportunity to reach out to cable viewers in the US,' David Wisnia, Star's SVP for distribution and sales and head of Star's North American and European offices, was quoted by the report as saying.
Cox Communications is the third-largest cable provider in the US.
Star, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp., controls over 20,000 hours of Indian and Chinese programming and also owns the world's largest contemporary Chinese film library. The group currently operates 17 channels in India, and recently announced the launch of six more.