Two news channels surrender licence to MIB; TV channels drop to 830

[Dileep Kumar]

MUMBAI: Two news channels have bitten the dust. The owners of ABC News and Voice of Nation have surrendered their TV channel licences to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB), a source said.

With this, the number of TV channels in the country has decreased to 830, according to the MIB’s updated list of permitted TV channels.

As per an earlier list, the MIB had granted licences to 832 TV channels till 9 April 2015, out of which 406 were news and current affairs channels while 426 were non-news and current affairs channels.
With the surrender of licences by these two channels, the number of news and current affairs channels has fallen to 404.

Voice of Nation was a Dehradun-based Hindi news channel owned by Northern India Holdings. The channel had received news uplinking licence in Hindi (digital mode) on 13 September 2010.

ABC News was a Telugu news channel owned by Vijayawada-based Akhil Broadcasting. The channel had received news uplinking licence in Telugu on 3 October 2011.

Two news channels surrender licence to MIB; TV channels drop to 830 | TelevisionPost.com

 

[Dileep Kumar]

As per the recent updates from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, It is understood that two news channels have surrendered their Broadcasting licence to the Ministry owing to unknown reasons.

It updates also reveal that the Broadcasters are ABC News, which was owned by a Vijayawada based Media Company Akhil Broadcasting. They have received the uplinking rights from MIB to Broadcast Telugu News during the year 2011.

Market sources confirm that the Company has surrendered the license of ABC News channel due to un-viable business equations prevailing in Telugu news market due to the presence of More than a dozen Telugu news channels that has cluttered the news space in Telugu.

On the other hand, the other Media Company which surrendered its license was a Dehradun-based Hindi new channel named Voice of Nation. The channel received its news uplinking licence during the year 2010.

After these two surrenders, According to MIB updates, the number of TV channels in the country will be reduced to 830 from 832 out of which, 426 are non-news and current affairs channels and 406 are news channels.

I&B ministry update also states that 163 new channels were approved over the past five years out of which around 37 new TV channel licenses were issued towards the end of last year.

Two News Channels ABC News, Voice of Nation surrender their licences