NEW DELHI: While the year 2014 saw the clearance of more than 30 television channels, the first four months of 2015 have so far only seen four new channels receiving permission to launch. They are: ETV Plus, ETV Life, ETV Abhiruchi and Vedas Om TV. The largest gainer is here Eenadu Entertainment Television of Hyderabad, which owns the ETV brand of channels.

To expedite the process, which had remained stagnant after March-end, the Ministry now holds the Open House meetings with stakeholders two time every month instead of once.

With the four new channels being added this year, the number of permitted satellite television channels has gone up marginally to 830 by April 2015 from 826 in December-end 2014.

The cleared channels are all general entertainment channels (GECs), which now total to 425 and all of them have been given uplinking permission.

Statistics show that 697 channels (including 382 news channels) are permitted to uplink and downlink from within the country, and 40 (including seven news channels) are uplinked from India for beaming overseas and not in the country. There is no change in channels uplinked from overseas and downlinked into India with the number remaining static at 93 (including 16 news channels). 

Additionally, the MIB has permitted 9X Bangla channel to assume a new name - 9X Bannao.