The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) earlier last week handed ARG Outlier Media its third satellite TV channel license on 5th March 2021 allowing Arnab Goswami to launch ‘R.Bangla’ in the run-up to the upcoming West Bengal elections.
ARG Outlier Media got MIB not to launch ‘R.Bangla‘ on 5th March 2021 with permission to broadcast in the Bengali language in the ‘NEWS’ category and permission to uplink and downlink from Intelsat-20.
ARG Outlier Media had earlier in December 2020 registered the trademark named ‘R.Bangla’ post which it is believed to have filed an application with the MIB for permission to launch ‘R.Bangla’ on linear TV as a satellite TV channel.
| Channel Name | Company | Category | Uplinking & Downlinking/ Uplinking Only/ Downlinking Only | Language | Date of Permission |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R.Bangla | ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd | NEWS | Uplink and Downlink | Bengali | 2021-03-05 |
The channel later went on air officially from 8 AM on Sunday, 7th March 2021 just 2 days after MIB gave the green signal for the launch. Republic Bangla is believed to be turnkey project for the entire Republic Media Network with a record 65 day execution span.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) on 8th March 2021 cancelled two more satellite TV channel licenses bringing down the permitted satellite TV channels count to 901. MIB has cancelled the satellite TV licenses held by Janvani Broadcasting Corporation Limited namely ‘P7 Gujarati’ and ‘Sneha TV’. The company was earlier named Pearls Broadcasting Corporation Private Limited which held the two licenses.
