MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) gave licenses to six new channels in the month of January and February. The channels are Skystar Bangla, Skystar Telugu, PTC Music, PTC Punjabi, PTC Simran and Zee Classic. All the six channels are under non-news category.

G-Next Media got the permission for uplinking and downlinking PTC Music, PTC Punjabi and PTC Simran on Intelsat-20 satellite in Punjabi, Hindi and English on 7 February 2019.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises got the permission for uplinking and downlinking Zee Classic on Asiasat-7 in Punjabi, Hindi and all regional languages on 13 February 2019.

Skystar Entertainment Pvt Ltd got the permission for uplinking and downlinking Skystar Bangla and Skystar Telugu on Intelsat-20 in Hindi, English, all India scheduled languages and world language on 15 January 2019.

The number of private satellite TV channels having valid permission in India stands at 885 as on 21 February 2019. 505 channels are non-news and the remaining 380 are news channels.
In December 2018, MIB gave permission to five channels.