The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) today dropped ‘News Plus’ from the permitted private satellite TV channels database bringing down the number of satellite TV channels from 909 to 908. The cancellation is likely to have happened after 31st January 2021 with Prakash Javadekar on the floor of the house in Lok Sabha confirming presence of 909 permitted TV channels including 388 News channels.
The Ministry has seemingly missed to updated the cancelled TV channels database but it would be fair to assume that the license has been cancelled. As such the number of permitted private satellite TV channels now stands at 908 with 387 News channels.
‘News Plus’ license was held by NewsPlus Television Private Limited. The company had permission to broadcast in Hindi, English and other Indian scheduled languages. The channel got the nod on 8th December 2009 to operate from Intelsat 17.
The Ministry recently cancelled the license of Adhyatm for non payment of annual permission fee. MIB has also recently cancelled the license of ‘Music F’ and ‘R Vision’.