Why are these six channels suddenly missing from Tata Play?

New Delhi: Tata Play will remove six television channels from its platform in the second half of November 2025, affecting viewers of select Hindi and regional news and entertainment services.

According to the latest channel line-up update, The Q (LCN 175), Kashish News (LCN 1139), India Daily 24x7 (LCN 536) and Swatantra TV (LCN 1468) are scheduled to be dropped on November 19. Spondon (LCN 1954) will go off the platform on November 20, while Manoranjan Prime (LCN 1124) is slated for removal on November 27.

Swatantra TV is being taken down after a prolonged outage from the broadcaster’s end, with a scroll message running on LCN 999 informing viewers about the disruption and upcoming removal.

When asked about the possible reasons for the removal of the other channels, industry sources said, “Such removals typically stem from a mix of commercial, strategic and operational factors rather than a single trigger. Platforms may drop channels when carriage-fee negotiations fail, when viewership is too low to justify transponder costs, or when there is excessive overlap with existing services in the same genre and language.”

“In some cases, broadcasters themselves scale back or shut feeds because of financial stress, changes in ownership or a shift towards digital-only distribution. Most of the channels being removed are seen as cases of broadcasters scaling back operations,” said a senior distribution executive.