New Delhi : The Information and Broadcasting ministry has withdrawn permission of 27 news and current affairs TV channels owing to reasons such as surrender of permission and non-operationalisation of TV channels.
Rajyavardhan Rathore, the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, told the Rajya Sabha that the government has no plans of amending guidelines regarding uplinking and downlinking. India currently has 830 permitted private satellite television channels, including 425 general entertainment channels and 405 news and current affair channels. The government has reiterated that it is not capping the number of TV channels in the country.
In reply to another question, Rathore said that the Ministry had withdrawn permission of 27 news and current affairs TV channels for reasons of non-operationalization of TV channels or surrender of permission, etc.
As of January, 2015, 701 channels in the country can both uplink and downlink; 36 channels can only uplink and 93 can only downlink. TV channels, both general and news-based, mushroomed in India during the last decade.
Fall in advertising revenue and economic slowdown, however, has forced the TV industry to consolidate. The year 2014 saw 30 TV channels getting clearance from the government.
