MUMBAI: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) gave licenses to five new channels up until 31 December 2018. The channels are P Plus, PTunes, Living Travelz, Star Movies Kids and Star Movies Kids HD.

Graphisads Private Ltd got the permission for uplinking and downlinking P Plus and PTunes (non-news) on GSAT-17 satellite in Hindi, English and all Indian scheduled languages on 27 December 2018.

Essel Group-owned Living Entertainment Enterprises (LEEPL) got the permission for uplinking and downlinking Living Travelz (non-news) on Intelsat-20 in Hindi and English language on 9 December 2018. Going by the name, Living Travelz, mostly will be a lifestyle channel which will compete against FYI TV18, TLC, Fox Life. The teleport operator of the channel will be Dish TV India.

Surprisingly, Star India is planning to target the kids' audience and got the permission for Star Movies Kids and its HD version on Asiasat-7 satellite. The competitors for the broadcaster in the kids industry are Nick, CN, Pogo, Hungama, Disney and Discovery Kids.  

The number of private satellite TV channels having valid permission in India stands at 883 as on 31 December 2018. 497 channels are non-news channels and the remaining 386 are news channels.

Of the 883 permitted private satellite channels, TV channels permitted for uplinking from India and also to downlink into India are 785. Nine non-news channels and five news channels are permitted for uplinking from India but not downlink into the country. 84 TV channels are uplinked from abroad which only have downlinking permission in India. This category includes 15 news and 69 non-news channels.