NEW DELHI: With clearance to three private television satellite channels including two news channels in June, the total number has risen to 892 of which news and current affairs channels number 403.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has said it had given permission to 1031 channels but later cancelled permission to 139. The number of general entertainment channels is 489 according to the list up to 30 June.
Twenty channels including seven news channels have been permitted to uplink from India but not downlink within the country and there has been no change in this category.
A total of 776 channels including 395 GECs are allowed to uplink and downlink in the country while 96 including 81 GECs are uplinked from overseas but allowed to downlink into TV homes in the country.
After 31 May, the news channels cleared are: ‘Total Haryana’ and ‘Total Rajasthan’ by Total Telefilms Pvt Ltd,
The only Non-News channel cleared is MAAS TV owned by Gokann International Media Pvt. Ltd.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry site (mib.nic.in) also contains the full details of the owners of these channels, the languages in which they will beam, and the date on which the clearance came. However, there are no details of channels denied permission.
