India has 503 registered TV channels till March-end

India has 503 registered TV channels till March-end


Insearchindia.com Team

(24 July 2010 8:20 pm)


NEW DELHI: Even as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
has recommended that there should be no cap on the number of
television channels in the country, its quarterly report for January
to March 2010 shows that 18 new television channels were registered
taking the total to 503.

These include 147 pay channels being broadcast or distributed
by 24 broadcasters, according to the Trai Indian Telecom Services
Performance Indicator Report.

During the quarter, three new pay channels were launched and two
channels were converted from FTA to pay by the broadcasters.

S.No Name of the Broadcaster Name of the channel Status
(New /Converted)
Zee Turner Limited Zee Salaam New pay channel
MSM Discovery Discovery Science New pay channel
MSM Discovery Discovery Turbo New pay channel
Asianet Communications Asianet Converted from FTA to Pay channel
Asianet Communications Asianet Plus Converted from FTA to Pay channel

During the quarter, the distribution of following 11 channels changed / shifted :-
S.No Name of the channel Distributed earlier Distributed now
Zee Sports Zee Turner Taj Television India
Ten Sports Zee Turner Taj Television
The Disney Channel Star Den Sun Distribution Services
Disney XD Star Den Sun Distribution Services
Hungama TV Star Den Sun Distribution Services
FX Fox Channels India Star Den
FoX Crime Fox Channels India Star Den
Baby TV Fox Channels India Star Den
Nat Geo Fox Channels India Star Den
Nat Geo Adventure Fox Channels India Star Den
Nat Geo Music Fox Channels India Star Den

During the quarter, Channel Plus (Now Sun Distribution Services) has
reported an increase of 7 per cent in the rates of all their channels
for Non-Cas areas in pursuance of the tariff amendment order - the Telecommunication (Broadcasting and Cable) Services (Second) Tariff
(Ninth Amendment) Order, 2008 for Non-Cas areas. The aim of this
tariff amendment order was to provide inflation linked adjustments
of 7 per cent in the rates of channels for cable TV services.

There are six private Direct-to-Home licensees having a subscriber
base of 21.3 million viewer homes. This is apart from Doordarshan’s
DD Direct Plus which is the only DTH player for free-to-air channels.

The total number of set-top boxes installed in Chennai and the Cas
notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai increased from
7,45,953 in December 2009 to 7,62,238 in March 2010.

The maximum number of pay TV channels being carried by any cable
operator is 122 (Up by only two) and the maximum number of FTA
channels is 161 channels (up by six).

The maximum number of TV channels being carried by any of the reported
MSOs is 259, and 100 in the conventional analogue form.

Interestingly, the only one new licence was issued to a Teleport
Service Provider, taking the total to 61