India cancels 13 TV broadcast licences
March 3, 2017
By Chris Forrester
India’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting cancelled the licences of 13 channels in January, as well as banning the transmission of one channel for violating its programme code.
The 13 channels taken down include Triveni Media, Neon Solution, Pompash Fiscal Services, New Delhi TV and Satlon Enterprise. Triveni Media suffered lost licences for 7 of its channels, five of which were News channels.
New Delhi TV’s lost licences include Granada TV and Trace Sports TV. Granada TV is a general entertainment channel owned by the UK’s ITV while Trace Sports Star (earlier Trace Sports HD) is a sports lifestyle channel. The two channels were launched in 2012.
The channel subjected to a 30-day ban (to run from April 15th to May 14th) is Sandesh News, which was found to have transmitted “nude visuals” of actors captured at a 5-star hotel party.
India now has a total of 889 permitted private TV channels.