Plans to launch the weather channel, tentatively named&aposMausam', were called off following differences over content sharing, the official said.

Five private channels had evinced interest to partner with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to launch a weather channel, which was supposed to be on air this month.

The channel was to provide information on oceanic movements, temperature and rainfall, as well as warnings about natural disasters.

According to the basic plan, six-hour programming was being planned everyday for the channel which was to be upgraded as a 24-hour channel by 2010 before the Commonwealth Games.

As per the plan the IMD was to provide weather related data for a fee while the private partner was to bring in funds and manage the channel on a day-to-day basis.

The channel was part of the UPA Government&aposs plan to modernise and upgrade the observatory stations and communication, forecast and public information systems.