BBC Global News India has relaunched BBC Cbeebies in India earlier this month adding another non-news channel to its offerings in the Indian market. The channel has boarded Fastway and NXT Digital in the last fortnight. An official announcement is expected later this year.
MSO Fastway added the channel in early April on its platform. The channel is available on LCN 390. BBC CBeebies carries a price tag of Rs 5 according to the Fastway EPG.
NXT Digital followed suit by adding the channel on its platform in the second week of April. The channel is available on LCN 918 and has a price tag of Rs 5 as well. Interestingly, NXT is also offering BBC Global News and Cbeebies as part of its Vishesh Manoranjan Pack which is priced at Rs 30.
DreamDTH reached out to BBC post the launch of BBC Cbeebies in India on multiple cable operators to get an official confirmation on the launch.
BBC Global News India MD Rahul Sood speaking to DreamDTH said, “BBC Studios and BBC Global News have received licenses to operate multiple channels in India in 2020. We are currently in discussions with multiple broadcast partners and platforms about our channel offerings, including CBeebies. We will begin to roll-out this year and will make an official announcement later this year, so please watch this space.”
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) had granted BBC Global News India the license to relaunch CBeebies in India last year on April 02. Interestingly the launch on Fastway coincided on the same date 1 year later.
BBC had earlier in 2012 shutdown its non-news channels BBC Entertainment and CBeebies blaming the delays in digitization and the need for channel operators to pay cable operators for carriage makes the economics of the running channels challenging at times.
Thanks for the Tip : Gurmeet Singh and Akash Solanki
Woohoo…!
Now, all they need is just to relaunch the dead-brand of BBC Entertainment by bringing its successor brand to BBC NEXT within the year, if not 6 months and: It’ll be “the magnificence as usual”.
Hopefully, they’ll get back the rights of the programming-block from ZEEL( ahh… How I wish the would-be SP department is as “accidentally” liberal as them but not “accidentally” homophobic, as well 😊) and acquire the rights of shows like ‘BBC’s Luther’ and ‘BBC’s Doctor Who’ from DisneyStarUTV aka, “Star and Disney India”( who, BTW: Hasn’t exercised its option to renew linear-rights and acquire newer episodes ever since the announcement of The Doctor regenerating into a cisfemale was made) and.. They’ll be get, and set to go!
Can’t care less about SPN ‘doing the ESPN’ with BBC earth or them not being able to buyback ‘BBC’s Top Gear’ from Jio-affiliated and most-importantly, DSU’s censorship-kin VIACOM18( still pending rebrand, huh?). ☺️
“Baby steps”, right?( The last and first-ever time, then-BBC Worldwide did the number of themselves by launching both channels simultaneously in a far-less transparent system, right?) 😏
P.S. I’m here by researching about it ever since I discovered it myself that my carrier/operator/service-provider, TATA sky has added it[ together with bunch of other, sports channels].
BBC might expand in India in the future given the huge funding from the UK Govt in 2017 plus out of UK India is BBC’s biggest market with over 50 million eyeballs digitally. ESPN exit was probably because of the Disney-Star merger as exit plans were there for months. Indeed, it is a far more transparent system than the once in 2011 however still plenty of things to be fixed in the NTO.
You could check out our community forum wherein DTH and TV Enthusiasts share all the latest news and discuss on DTH and Television Industry. https://dreamdth.com/community/