The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has in the last few months approved more than two dozen name change approvals from various broadcasters. Many of the licenses have already been operationalized post the ministry approval. Zee Entertainment and Discovery Communications license are among the big changes.
According to the exclusive findings of DreamDTH, the ministry has approved 21 license name changes on top of the 9 license name changes DreamDTH had exclusively reported around a month back. The 9 name change approvals were of Hi-Dost!, Mango, ANB News, News 11 Bharat, Naaptol, Bangla Naaptol, Malayalam Naaptol, Kannada Naaptol, and Tamil Naaptol. This takes the total number of license name changes granted approval by MIB to 30 since July when DreamDTH had last reported the license name changes of around 21 name change permits including ABP News HD, Sony Marathi HD, and MTunes+.
Zee Entertainment Ltd. and Discovery Communications India have got the approval of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s (MIB) approval to launch Zee Picchar, Zee Punjabi, Zee Thirai and Investigation Discovery along with its HD counterpart Investigation Discovery HD as well.
The ministry has approved Zee Entertainment’s application for the name change of its five licenses. Zee Malayalam and Zee Malayalam HD will make way for Zee Picchar and Zee Thirai. Big Magic Punjab is set to make way for Zee Punjabi. The final two changes are the reversal of its decision to drop the ‘Big’ brand prefix for two of its channels. Big Magic and Big Ganga will remain on air with the same name it currently has.
Discovery Communications India’s application for the name change of its four licenses has also been approved by the ministry. Jeet Prime and Jeet Prime HD will make way for Investigation Discovery HD and Investigation Discovery. TLC HD World and Discovery HD World have dropped the ‘World’ suffix and already revamped some time back. TLC HD World had revamped on 7 October while Discovery HD World had rebranded on 8 August.
Viacom18’s MTV Indies license has been renamed as Rishtey Cineplex. The broadcaster had this year only rebranded Rishtey Cineplex to Colors Cineplex. The change could be the end of MTV Indies and might bring back Rishtey Cineplex.
Mass Telecasting Pvt. Ltd.’s Mubu TV license has made way for ‘The Q’ channel. Cinema 24*7 Pvt Ltd’s NT8 and NT9 have made for Cinema TV India and Telugu Naaptol. ITV Network’s NewsX Kannada has been renamed NE News which launched on September 24.
T Sarkar Pvt Ltd’s Orange TV has been renamed as Orange Bangla. Naman Broadcasting has been allowed to rename Sadhana News to Live Today with the tagline ‘Tez Najar Sahi Khabar’. Vertinent Media’s Pratinidhi TV has made for R9 TV which launched on September 13.
Skystar Entertainment Private Limited’s application for the name change of its three licenses has also been approved by the ministry. Skystar Telugu, Skystar Movies and Skystar Bangla have made way for ABZY Dhakad, ABZY Movies, and ABZY Cool. The channels rebranded on September 24 recently. Zonet Cable TV Private Limited’s license Zonet has been renamed to Odisha News.
Epic Television Network Pvt. Ltd. is now renamed as IN10 Media Pvt. Ltd. Home Shop’s license holder company has been renamed from TV18 Home Shopping Network Pvt. Ltd. to Television Home Shopping Network Limited.
