MUMBAI: Mumbai: Television broadcasters in India are at loggerheads with the department of space as the latter is allegedly denying all permissions — be it for launch of a new channel or change in logo — to channels that are not operating on Indian satellites.Over the last three months, all broadcasters who have applied for either new channels or changes in the name of existing channels have been denied permissions by department of space (DoS) with an explicit directive to move to Indian satellites, Indian Broadcasting Foundation ( IBF ) has complained to minister of state for space Jitendra Singh and information and broadcasting (I&B) minister Smriti Irani in a letter.ET has reviewed a copy of the letter that has sought immediate relief to the TV broadcasters.Apparently, DoS wants all the channels to shift their operations to Indian satellites operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from existing foreign satellites like Intelsat , Asiasat, Measat, Apstar and others. Currently 80% of all Indian broadcasters are operating on foreign satellites. Out of 724 active channels, only 156 are on Indian satellites.In October last year, the I&B ministry had reverted to the erstwhile practice of referring all applications seeking uplinking permissions, or change of teleport and/or satellite in respect of TV channels to DoS for its ‘no objection’.This, IBF said in its letter, has resulted in permissions being denied to all new channels and existing channels who have applied for new permissions.Punit Goenka, president of IBF, claimed that capacity on INSAT 4A is satiated while ISRO’s other satellites lack quality teleports. “The capacity that ISRO is offering to broadcasters on GSAT-10 and GSAT-17 have no concomitant approved teleports,” he told ET.“Such a move would concurrently result in financial and litigating circumstances for the sector, especially for all those networks which have an ongoing contract with the foreign satellites,” said Goenka who is also managing director at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Goenka claimed that ISRO's insistence has resulted in pendency for many channels at the level of getting operationalised, which is inhibiting the growth of the sector.K Sethuraman, director at ISRO, however, told ET that DoS has spent a lot of taxpayers’ money to build satellites and thus there is nothing wrong in directing broadcasters to use these satellites. But he refused to comment on whether or not ISRO is denying any permission to broadcasters.Industry insiders confirmed that permissions related to name change and new channel launches have been pending for more than three months now. For instance, Star India ’s application to convert Channel V into Star Sports Kannada has been pending.Goenka said that while this move cannot be construed to be antithetical to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’s slogan of ‘ease of doing business’ in India, any sector would wish to leverage its existing capacities to the core. He said such stipulations are “non-existent” in any other country and “go against the very principle of making India a hub for media, teleports and inexpensive uplinks”.“As an aftermath, existing uplinks and teleports could contemplate either ceasing their operations or moving out of the country,” Goenka said.Indian Broadcasting Foundation plans to initiate a dialogue with I&B ministry and ministry of space to find an amicable solution to the issue.