PTI

New Delhi: India is going to see a boom in number of television channels as 150 applications are awaiting permission from the government to launch their channels.

“So far close to 400 broadcasting channels have been given permission by the Ministry of I&B and about 150 applications are pending as on date,” Information and Broadcasting Secretary Sushma Singh has said.

The ministry has already given licences to 33 new news channels this year. Sources said they may be granted clearance as a matter of routine. The clutter in the airwaves will demand more carriage medium other than cable and MSOs to reach out to the viewers.

With the proliferation of new channels, fragmentation of audience is also taking place.

Digitalisation, new technologies such as video on demand, digital video recorder, internet viewing are changing the traditional methods of television viewing, sector observers said.

The good news is that government is allowing new carriage systems like IPTV. “The scourge of this carriage fees will be automatically taken care of and the industry will witness better growth both in terms of revenue as well as the quality of content,” Singh said.

Broadcasters feel carriage fees are too high. It is the carriage. The broadcasters pay nearly Rs2,500 crore to cable operators.

“Cabinet has given approval for the IPTV proposal that should promote the industry further. Broadcasters will now be able to provide their signals to the IPTV platform and the viewers will be able to get all the three services -- telephony, internet and TV channels -- through the same service provider,” Singh said.

Estimated at Rs22,600 crore in 2007, the revenue of television industry has registered a growth of 18% over the previous year figure of Rs19,100 crore.