I&B Ministry
Two open house meetings every month to speed channel licence clearance
NEW DELHI: The new government at the centre certainly seems to be taking the issue of channel licence clearance very seriously. To clear the long list of pending applications for new TV channels, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has decided to hold open house meeting with stakeholders twice a month, as against the earlier practice of one meeting a month.
The next meeting is slated for 18 July in Shastri Bhavan, the main office of the Ministry. Stakeholders have been asked to send, in advance, the information they require, so that these can be supplied to them at the meeting.
It is understood that almost a hundred applications are pending for clearance at various stages either with the I&B Ministry, Home Ministry or the Department of Telecom.
Furthermore, the coming into force of the code of conduct in April this year prevented clearance of any new channels and therefore the number of channels which was 795 at the end of May remained the same at the end of June.
A large number of new applications including those by Media Content and Communications Services (MCCS) that runs the ABP group of channels, Star India for its second Tamil channel, and Epic TV are pending.
The only change was that the number of news and current affairs channels went up by two to 395 and the number of non news and current affairs channels came down by the same number to 400.
The first four months of 2014 saw licences being given to nine channels including AXN HD and SET HD.
The Ministry also placed on its website the names of the companies which own these channels, the language, and the date when permission was granted.
I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati sets EPG standards for DD Free Dish platform
New specs define 7-day guide, LCN mapping, and device compatibility.
MUMBAI: Your TV guide just got a backstage pass structured, scheduled, and far more in sync. Prasar Bharati has released detailed technical specifications for Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) services on DD Free Dish, laying down a standardised framework for how channels and programme information are organised and delivered. At the core of the update is a defined EPG data structure, covering genre-based categorisation, scheduling formats, and Logical Channel Numbering (LCN). The aim is simple: make navigation less guesswork and more guided experience across the platform’s over 40 million households.
The specifications also introduce a seven-day programme guide window for each channel, alongside clear rules for channel grouping and LCN mapping effectively deciding not just what you watch, but how easily you find it.
On the technical front, the document outlines requirements for Program Specific Information (PSI) and Service Information (SI), including descriptor usage across tables such as PAT, BAT and NIT. It further details service lists and network linkage parameters, giving OEMs and developers a clearer blueprint for integration.
Importantly, the framework is designed to work seamlessly with television sets equipped with in-built satellite tuners, enabling users to access DD Free Dish directly without additional hardware, an incremental but meaningful step towards simplifying access.
The platform will continue to operate on GSAT-15 transponders, using MPEG-4 compression and DVB-S2 transmission standards, ensuring continuity even as the interface evolves.
While largely technical, the move signals a broader push towards standardisation and user-friendly discovery in India’s free-to-air ecosystem because sometimes, the real upgrade isn’t what’s on screen, but how easily you get there.
