Mumbai: The BBC Entertainment and CBeebies channels won’t be shown in India after the end of this month, BBC Worldwide Ltd said, blaming the move on the challenges faced by pay TV in India.

“The decision to withdraw these BBC channels has not been an easy one to take," BBC Worldwide said in an update on its Facebook page. The BBC World News channel will continue to be telecast in India.

“India is a dynamic and fast growing media market but remains uniquely challenging for pay TV channels. Specifically, delays in digitization and the need for channel operators to pay cable platforms for carriage makes the economics of running channels very challenging at this time," the company said.

The BBC announcement comes as the government’s bid to switch over to digital television broadcast system from analogue faces resistance. The shift was supposed to have taken place in India’s four biggest cities--New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai--by 31 October. The rest of the country is to follow in phases.

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