NEW DELHI: Only 35.81 million subscribers of the six private direct-to-home (DTH) service providers are active out of a total 62.97 million registered subscribers, working out to around 56.87 per cent. The private DTH players include: Tata Sky, Dish TV, Airtel Digital TV, Reliance Big TV, Sun Direct and Videocon d2h.

According to the Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for the quarter ending December 2013, a total of 782 private television channels and a total of 242 private FM radio channels were registered with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B).

This is apart from the FM radio and TV channels operated by Prasar Bharati. Doordarshan has 37 channels including DD Bharati and DD National besides four allied channels like Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV, Prasar Bharati sources told indiantelevision.com. 

AIR network has grown up to 299 stations and 461 transmitters (146 MW, 48 SW & 267 FM) which provide coverage to about 99.19 per cent of the country’s population spread over 91.87 per cent area of the country, these sources said.

There are a total of 187 pay channels, as reported by the broadcasters/ distributors for which the rates have been taken on records at the QE December 2013.

The report says the maximum number of TV channels (Pay, Free to Air and Local) being carried by any of the reported MSOs in digital form is 231, while that carried by any of the reported MSOs in the conventional analogue form is 100 channels.

The report showed that of the total 238.71 million internet subscribers, broadband subscribers totaled 55.2 million and narrow band subscribers totaled 183.51 million.

Of these, only 18.33 million were wired internet subscribers while 220.38 were wireless internet subscribers.  

The study also shows that 92.13 per cent of the wireless internet subscribers were on mobile, while just 0.19 per cent were on fixed wireless mode. A total of 7.68 per cent of the internet subscribers were on wired mode.

Meanwhile, the number of news and non-news channels has almost become equal with the government recently revealing it has so far given permission to a total of 786 television channels in the country.

According to the statistics revealed by the I&B Ministry earlier this year, the number of news and current affairs channels is 389 while the number of non-news (general entertainment channels) is 397.

Of the total, 664 TV channels including 369 news channels have been given permission to uplink and downlink from within the country.

A total of 31 channels including 27 GECs are allowed to uplink from India but not downlink – thus they are aimed at other countries.

A total of 91 channels uplinked from overseas are allowed to downlink into the country. These include 75 GECs.