Government had stalled its plan for new television channels as they were bound by the Model Code which forbade the government from clearing the deck for the pending channels. The three new channels have got a clearance as on July 28 bringing the total number of channels to 798.
There have been some changes in the number of channels as the total number of News channels has gone up from 393 to 397 and the General Entertainment channel has been reduced from 402 to 401.
In a bid to speed up the clearance process the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry will host open house meetings with stakeholders twice a month.
The new channels which got a green signal this July are Peace of Mind by God Media, Punjabi dedicated news channel ABP Sanjha hosted by Media Content and Communication and Patrika TV Rajasthan which is a regional news channel but will also broadcast news in Hindi and English.
A slew of new applications for clearances are pending including those from Big Media houses like the Star India. There are many new HD channels lined up for permissions. The HD channels which recently received permissions from I&B include AXN HD and SET HD.
Who is your DTH or cable service provider how many channels do you get do let us know via comments.
