Studio One Plus: Hyderabad's Telugu Entertainment Channel
Studio One Plus is a Telugu-language entertainment channel from Hyderabad that has served viewers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for more than a decade. It began life as Studio One, a Telugu entertainment and movie channel that was already celebrating its first anniversary by the mid-2010s, and it later adopted the "Plus" identity — first as a symbol in its logo, then written out in full — under which it broadcasts today. Free-to-air on satellite and carried by a long list of cable networks and by Airtel Digital TV and Jio Fiber, the channel mixes Telugu films, music, film-industry coverage, family entertainment and daily astrology into a general entertainment schedule.
In the intensely competitive Telugu television market, Studio One Plus is a survivor: a mid-sized independent entertainment channel that has ridden out satellite changes, platform additions and removals, and repeated carriage renegotiations, and that still publishes a daily programme offering built around what Telugu family audiences watch most — movies and movie people.
Overview
Studio One Plus is a Telugu general entertainment channel based in Hyderabad, the shared media capital of the Telugu states. Satellite listings describe it as a 24x7 Telugu entertainment service, free-to-air from the GSAT-30 satellite, and its own channel descriptions define its offer as family entertainment: Telugu movies old and new, songs, trailers, shows and trending stories. Its official website is studioonetv.com, with studioonehd.com promoted as its entertainment destination online.
The channel's present-day branding emphasises breadth — "Family • Entertainment • Trending Telugu Shows" is its own summary — and its published channel numbers tell the story of its distribution strategy: no fewer than sixteen cable and fibre networks are listed in its viewer information, alongside Airtel Digital TV at channel 937 and Jio Fiber at 1407.
History and Launch
The Studio One story begins in the early 2010s. The channel was testing in high definition as Studio One HD on Intelsat 17 by November 2013, when satellite trackers reported it starting in the slot of Aashirwad Gold with upscaled content in test mode. As a standard entertainment service, Studio One completed its first year on air in a period when Telugu entertainment was expanding rapidly, and period reports describe a Telugu entertainment channel aiming at the top of its market. By early 2015, dealer reports described Studio One as a 24x7 Telugu movie channel, and it was being added to platforms: Videocon d2h added Studio One in April 2015.
Platform life was not always smooth. In September 2015 d2h moved Studio One to its Active window service, a demotion that viewers protested in industry forums. The channel nevertheless persisted across platforms through the decade. Around 2020 its on-screen identity evolved: the logo that had carried a "+" symbol beneath the word "One" was restyled to spell "Plus" in letters, settling the channel's name as Studio One Plus. In February 2020 the channel began a fresh test transmission on GSAT-30 at 83 degrees east — reported at the time as a restart of the service as a free-to-air channel — and subsequently left Intelsat 17, consolidating on GSAT-30.
Carriage disputes continued into the 2020s. Tata Sky removed Studio One+ from its line-up at LCN 1423 in one documented instance, and in 2023 d2h repeatedly announced and then deferred the channel's removal, extending the date week by week from September into November — a public paper trail of the carriage negotiations that small free-to-air channels constantly conduct.
Ownership and Network
Studio One Plus is an independent Hyderabad-based Telugu channel. Public sources consulted for this profile do not document a parent media conglomerate or named promoters for the channel; it has operated alongside related Studio-branded services noted in industry discussion, including Studio N, a 24x7 Telugu news channel referenced alongside Studio One in distribution reports of the mid-2010s, and Studio Yuva, a movie-focused free-to-air channel discussed by viewers in the same period. Those associations place Studio One within a small family of Telugu services rather than within one of India's large broadcast groups.
The channel's operations are centred in Hyderabad, and its public face is its programme brand rather than a corporate one: its website, its studioonehd entertainment portal, its WhatsApp channel for updates, and its social accounts on Instagram, Facebook and X all operate under the Studio One Plus name.
Programming and Schedule
Movies are the foundation. From its early years the channel was described as a Telugu movie service — viewer accounts of its schedule recall three films a day, in morning, afternoon and night slots — and its current descriptions still promise new and old Telugu movies across comedy, action, romance and drama, together with songs and video content. Around the films sits film-industry programming: trailers, teaser launch events and interviews with Telugu cinema figures are staples of its output, with recent examples including a teaser launch event for the film Mansion House Mallesh and an interview with producer-director Lion Sai Venkat.
The daily schedule also carries the fixtures of Telugu family television. A daily astrology programme, "Daily Rasi Phalalu," presented by astrologer Bhargavi Budaraju, gives the day's horoscope predictions — a genre with a loyal morning audience on Telugu channels. Entertainment news, viral clips, full episodes of shows and trending stories fill the remaining hours, and the channel promotes its output heavily in short-form video, cutting daily entertainment into clips for YouTube and social platforms.
Events coverage extends the schedule beyond the studio: industry award functions, such as the Visionary Achievers Awards 2026, and location features, such as a full tour of Hyderabad's Snow World attraction, appear in its programming — the mix of cinema, celebrity and city life that defines Telugu general entertainment.
Language and Regional Focus
Studio One Plus broadcasts in Telugu, serving Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the two Telugu-speaking states, from its Hyderabad base. Its content is rooted in Tollywood — the Telugu film industry centred in Hyderabad — and in the everyday culture of the Telugu states: their festivals and astrology, their film music, their city attractions and their celebrities.
Because its distribution runs through the cable networks of the two states — the long list of regional operators in its channel guide is a map of Telugu cable, from AP Fiber to Siti Digital and ACT — the channel's regional focus is also its distribution footprint. It is made by and for the Telugu market, and its free-to-air status means any dish household in the region can receive it without a subscription package deciding its fate.
Availability and Platforms
Studio One Plus is free-to-air on GSAT-30 at 83 degrees east, where satellite listings record it in MPEG-4, DVB-S2 on the C-band transponder around 3958–3960 MHz horizontal with a symbol rate of 9500. It previously broadcast from Intelsat 17 at 66 degrees east before consolidating on GSAT-30.
Its published viewer guide lists carriage on Airtel Digital TV (channel 937), Jio Fiber (1407), and cable and fibre networks including NXT (11), BCN Network (61), SSLC (44), Siti Digital (28), AP Fiber (62), TCN (22), V Digital (23), MCPL (70), Yuva Media (68), SSC (22), GTPL (26), Asianet (133), ACT (34) and ACN (25). The channel has also been available through JioTV and MX Player TV streaming in its history, though forum reports noted periods when those streams showed colour bars during satellite transitions. Its YouTube channel functions as a full catch-up and clips service, with daily uploads and a WhatsApp channel for instant updates.
Audience and Market
Telugu general entertainment is one of India's strongest regional television markets, dominated by big network channels with expensive serials and reality shows. Studio One Plus competes from a different position: a free-to-air service whose movie library, film coverage and astrology give it dependable, habitual viewing without the production budgets of the leaders. Viewer discussion over the years has been candid — some dismissed it, others valued its films — but the channel's persistence across a decade of platform churn is itself evidence of a working audience.
Its digital metrics strategy is aimed at the same family audience on phones: daily entertainment clips, full episodes and trending stories, promoted across Instagram, Facebook and X. For a channel without a big network's marketing machine, that steady short-form presence is its shop window to younger Telugu viewers.
Notable Programmes and People
The channel's most identifiable recurring programme is its daily horoscope, "Daily Rasi Phalalu," presented by astrologer Bhargavi Budaraju, whose name is attached to editions running into 2026. Its film coverage has carried interviews and events featuring Telugu industry figures, including producer-director Lion Sai Venkat and the team of the film Mansion House Mallesh, with actors Srinath Maganti and Gayathri Ramana appearing in its teaser launch coverage.
Beyond named programmes, the channel's identity rests on its film library: full Telugu movies across genres, presented as the core of the schedule since its earliest descriptions as a 24x7 movie channel, and still foregrounded in its own account of what it offers viewers today.
Recent Developments
The channel remains in daily production. Its uploads through late 2025 and into 2026 include the daily horoscope, film events, interviews and entertainment features, and its viewer information has been refreshed to promote sixteen cable and fibre outlets plus its WhatsApp channel — the behaviour of a channel investing in distribution, not winding down. Its satellite consolidation on GSAT-30, completed after the 2020 test transmission period, gives it a stable free-to-air home.
More than a decade after Studio One first appeared on satellite, Studio One Plus continues as Hyderabad's independent Telugu entertainment service: films, music, astrology and Tollywood, broadcast free-to-air to the Telugu states and streamed to Telugu viewers everywhere.
