BBC Worldwide today (Thursday 1st November) confirms the closure of two of its branded channels in India. BBC Entertainment and CBeebies are to be withdrawn and will no longer be available beyond the end of November 2012. BBC World News, the BBC’s international news and current affairs channel, will remain available to our Indian viewers.

The decision to withdraw these BBC channels has not been an easy one to take. India is a dynamic and fast growing media market but remains uniquely challenging for pay-TV channels. Specifically, delays in digitisation and the need for channel operators to pay cable platforms for carriage makes the economics of running channels very challenging at this time.

Quality BBC content will continue to be seen in India – many of our programmes are available on other channels, both terrestrial and cable, as well as digitally and on our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/BBCWorldwide.

We would like to thank our dedicated and loyal staff in India, Singapore and the UK, who have worked on BBC Entertainment and CBeebies, and our many viewers for their support and loyalty. We believe India is an exciting market and in the event of changes in the options available to us we would certainly consider re-launching our non-News channels in the market.