India’s private broadcast channels number 892
Details
Rebecca Hawkes
| 09 March 2017

A total of 892 functional privately-owned television channels are now broadcasting in India, according to Government figures ending 28 February.

Permission was granted for a total of 1,061 privately-owned channels to operate in India, however 169 licences were cancelled. Another 11 are subject to a stay order by the court after their broadcast permission was cancelled by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry “due to security denial by Home Ministry”. These 11 channels are included in the overall figure of 892. India uplinks 20 TV channels – seven of which are news channels – that are downlinked in other countries.

The overall figure has increased by 23 on the 869 channels broadcasting in India as of the end of February 2016.

In February the channels History TV18 HD and Telugu Hindu Dharmam were given permission to uplink in India, while Sony BBC Earth HD was granted downlinking approval.