As per reports, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has put the clearances of new applications for television channels on hold, till the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) comes out with recommendations on issues relating to uplinking and downlinking of TV channels.
As per reports, the I&B Ministry had circulated a note in 2018 and proposed to keep in ‘abeyance’ permissions to all new TV Channels till a new policy was put in place after studying recommendations from TRAI.
TRAI had released a consultation paper on issues relating to uplinking and downlinking of television channels in December 2017 [Read here]. The sources indicate that out of 97 applications from Television channels under process, 30 are fresh applications. Show cause notices have been issued by the I&B Ministry to around 100 companies on the advice of Ministry of Corporate Affairs for various irregularities.
