NEW DELHI: AXN HD and SET HD, both from the Multi Screen Media (MSM) bouquet, are the only two private television channels permitted for downlinking into the country during 2014.

All the other nine channels which got permissions in the first four months of 2014 are to be uplinked from within the country. These include the news channels NSN News, VIP News (earlier known as Prabhatam NSB), Satlon News and Prabhatam Lifeline.

The general entertainment channels are: Daati Ahsaas, Satkar, Hastey Raho, the Bengali channel Fatafati and Maha Movie.

With this, the total number of private channels uplinking from or downlinking into the country has gone up to 795.

According to the statistics revealed by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry today, the number of news and current affairs channels is 393 while the number of non-news (general entertainment channels) is 402.

Of the total, 669 TV channels including 372 news channels have been given permission to uplink and downlink from within the country.

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.