Sony ESPN was an Indian pay television sports channel which was a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

between ESPN Inc. and Sony Pictures Networks India. The channel targeted the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

including India,

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

and Sri Lanka. It was part of the

Sony Pictures Sports Network Sony Sports Network, formerly Sony Pictures Sports Network, and also known as Sony TEN, is a group of Indian pay television sports channels owned by Culver Max Entertainment (formerly Sony Pictures Networks India). The original TEN Sports ch ...

group.

History

The channel launched on 8 April 2015 as Sony Kix, coinciding with the

2015 Indian Premier League The 2015 season of the Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 8 or, for sponsorship reasons, Pepsi IPL 2015, was the eighth season of the IPL, a Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. ...

. In October 2015, Multi Screen Media announced a partnership with

ESPN International ESPN International is a family of sportscasting and production networks around the world. It was begun in 1989, is operated by ESPN Inc. and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Operating regions Latin America Spanish-speaking countries * ES ...

, which would include the rebranding of Sony Kix as Sony ESPN, and collaboration on digital properties (including partnerships with properties such as

ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

). The venture returned the ESPN brand to Indian television for the first time since Star India rebranded its ESPN Star Sports channels as Star Sports in 2013. The relaunch occurred on 17 January 2016 in standard and high-definition, coinciding with the

2016 Australian Open The 2016 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 18 and 31 January 2016. It was the 104th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. The tournament consisted of ev ...

. On 18 July 2017, the channel became part of

following SPN's acquisition of TEN Sports. The channel was shut down on 30 March 2020.

References

External links

* {{Sony Pictures ESPN Sony Pictures Networks India Television channels and stations established in 2015 Television stations in Mumbai 2015 establishments in Maharashtra Television channels and stations disestablished in 2020 Defunct television channels in India