Hyderabad : The Telugu Media baron Ramoji Rao owned Eenadu Group which is in to Publications and Media business looks to expand its TV business with the launch of three more channels after their license approval is being approved by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
Earlier, Eenadu TV Group has sold all its group channels to Viacom in a mega M&A deal. However the group retained the control of its Telugu GEC Eenadu TV and its news channel ETV News.
Now, the Media group has acquired the license for Three general entertainment channels from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s and they are likely to be launched in 2015. It is understood that Eenadu TV has also received clearance for a Hindu devotional channel ‘Vedas Om TV’ from MIB.
New GEC channels of Eenadu TV Group are named as ETV Plus, ETV Life and ETV Abhiruchi.
The year 2015 has seen only four channels being cleared whereas 2014 saw as many as 30 channel approvals. MIB has begun holding meetings with stakeholders twice a month, instead of once a month, to expedite the process of approvals.
According to I&B Ministry data, 697 channels (including 382 news & Infotainment channels) are permitted to uplink and downlink in the country. India currently has 830 satellite channels, marginally higher from 826 in December 2014.
