Competition heats up in India’s private TV channel market

According to India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the number of licensed commercial television channels in the country is now 786.

News and current affairs accounted for the content of just over half – 389 – of those channels, as of 31 January 2014. 

From the total number of private channels, 664 are allowed to both uplink and downlink from India, while 31 channels can only uplink in India.

The remaining 91 channels are solely permitted to downlink into India, having uplinked from abroad, says the Ministry.