India steps back from “foreign” satellite ban
August 1, 2018
By Chris Forrester
India’s government, via its Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB), says it has not set any sort of deadline on a switch by satellite broadcasters from foreign-owned craft and their transponders to India’s own ISRO/Antrix satellites.
“The government has not set any deadline for use of foreign transponders by the TV channel owners,” said MIB Rajyavardhan Rathore.
It had been claimed that the Ministry was encouraging broadcasters to switch.
The MIB says that it has 867 privately-owned satellite channels broadcasting with permission, but also says that over the year “due to various reasons” 236 channels had their licenses cancelled or withdrawn.