MUMBAI: The process of awarding TV licences has virtually come to a grinding halt with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) granting just one TV channel licence in September.
The MIB has awarded non-news uplinking licence to Sky Star Entertainment under the name Sky Star. The licence is for English, Hindi and all-India scheduled languages.
The ministry has also cancelled the downlinking licences of 11 TV channels. Ten of these licences belonged to Fox Channels India and NGC Network India while one belonged to Day Star Television Network India under the name Daystar Television Network.
Daystar Television Network is an American network dedicated to spreading Christianity all around the globe, through all media formats.
Fox Channels India and NGC Network India are affiliate companies of 21st Century Fox-promoted Star India network.
Fox Channels India and NGC Network have surrendered their downlinking licences to theMIB since NGC Network India had received fresh uplinking licences from the ministry last year.
The company had received nine uplinking licences, namely National Geographic, Fox Life, Fox Life HD, Baby TV HD, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Wild HD, Nat Geo People HD, Nat Geo Music HD and National Geographic HD.
Thus, the infotainment channels of Fox have been consolidated under NGC Network. The channels were earlier being uplinked from Hong Kong.
Earlier, the licences were split between Fox Channels India and NGC Network India. The downlinking licences of Baby TV, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Music, National Geographic HD, Nat Geo People, Net Geo Wild HD and Nat Geo People HD were held under Fox Channels India. Three downlinking licences, namely National Geographic, Fox Life and Fox Life HD, were held by NGC Network India.
Until 30 September 2016, the government has granted permission to 1,042 channels. The permission to 161 channels has been cancelled so far. The total number of permitted TV channels stand at 881. Out of these, 399 are news and current affairs channels and 482 are non-news and current affairs channels.
The MIB has permitted 772 channels to uplink from India as well as to downlink into India while 22 channels have been permitted to only uplink from India. Eighty-seven channels have permission to only downlink into India.
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