MUMBAI: After Japan, it’s the turn of the UK for Star India channels to spread their wings. Star India has entered into a syndication deal with BSkyB to launch Star One and Star Gold.

Entertainment channel Star One and movie platform Star Gold will debut in the UK later this month or early December on BSkyB, which is over-35 per cent owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Star One is already available on US-DirecTV along with, Star Plus, Star News and Star Vijay. Speaking to indiantelevision.com Star India official spokesperson refused to comment on when will Star Gold be available to DirecTV subscribers.

While, on BSkyB, only two of channels --Star Plus and Star News are accessible.

According to information available with Indiantelevision.com, the decision has been taken and most formalities are said to be been completed. The reason for taking these two channels, apart from already existing ones, to the UK is that there’s a sizable Indian-origin population residing there who would pay to watch Indian fare, especially Hindi movies.

However, the programming on Star One and Star Gold may not be a photocopy of what’s seen back home. Reason: copyright issues. Especially those related to the satellite rights of Hindi movies.

Earlier this week, Star had announced launch of five Indian and two international channels in Japan on a new IPTV and community platform World on Demand (WoD). On WoD, Star has launched Star Plus, Star One, Star News, Star Utsav and Vijay, along with Sky News and Fox News.