MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB)published the status of application for new channels in regional languages on 5 February 2019. In the last two quarters of 2018, six companies applied for 10 regional channels in total.

Out of the 10 channels, four are from Eenadu Television, two are from LCGC Broadcasting and one each from Asianet News Network, Sidharth Broadcast, Sahara Television and Mavis Satcom.

All the four channels of Eenadu Broadcasting i.e. ETV Life HD, ETV Cinema HD, ETV Abhiruchi HD, ETV Plus HD, were granted permission from the MIB.

Out of the remaining six channels, five are news channels and a single non-news channel. All these six channels are under-consideration.

Sahara Television, which is undergoing financial turbulence, has also applied for a Telugu news channel, Bharat Today, on 26 December 2018.

Mavis Satcom has also put in an application for a Tamil news channel named Jaya TV on 2 January 2019, which is still under consideration.

Jesus Entertainment which opted for a regional channel named Yahova TV on 8 August 2016 in Tamil language is also under consideration.

In a recent update on 4 February, the MIB issued a notice informing all broadcasters that the online module for submitting applications for new TV channels is now operational on web portal www.broadcastseva.gov.in.

It also stated that henceforth, all such applications for new TV channels should be made through online mode only and no application should be sent through offline mode. BroadcastSeva is the effort of MIB to provide efficient and transparent regime for the growth and management of the Broadcast Sector. After submitting the online application the broadcasters are required to submit some documents through offline mode.