MIB Grants Two New TV Channel Licences In Dec

The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has granted two new TV channel licences in December. Sarthak Music and Shalini Television Network have received the non-news, uplinking & downlinking licences.

Sarthak Music has received the licence under the name Sidharth Gold while Shalini Television Network has got the approval to launch Shalini TV. As per the available information, the ministry has granted two licences so far in December.

In August, Sidharth Broadcasting had received a licence named Sidharth TV. Both the companies are promoted by Odia GEC Sarthak TV founder Sitaram Agrawalla.

As reported by TelevisionPost.com earlier, Agrawalla will be re-entering the TV broadcasting business in July 2020 once the non-compete agreement with ZEEL ends in June 2020.

In July 2015, ZEEL had acquired Sarthak TV for Rs 115 crore in an all-cash deal. The non-compete agreement barred Agrawalla from starting a new TV channel till June 2020.

Agrawalla has floated a new company Sidharth Broadcasting Pvt Ltd (SBPL) to launch TV channels in Odia and Bengali languages. The company plans to launch four channels – three in Odia and one in Bangla.

SBPL has applied for four TV channel licences and one teleport licence to the MIB. The company plans to launch Sidharth TV (Odia GEC), Sidharth Bhakti (Odia devotional), Sidharth Music (Odia music), and Sidharth Bangla (Bangla GEC).

In November, the MIB has granted 10 new TV channels in November. Khusboo Multimedia, Hari Bhoomi Communications, Kasthuri Medias, and Ganesh Digital Networks have received two licences each. Shraddha M.H One TV and Live India Today Entertainment have received one licence each.

The ministry had also revoked licences of The Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Pvt Ltd and ZEEL. The cancelled licences include Mathrubhumi News North and Mathrubhumi News South. ZEEL’s non-news uplinking-only licence Zee ME has also been cancelled.

As on 16th December, the total number of permitted satellite channels stand at 919.―Sportz Time