I&B Ministry
FM P-III second batch auction from 25 Oct; 14 in fray
NEW DELHI: The e-auction of the second batch of FM Phase III will commence on 25 October 2016 from 09.30am.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced that as stipulated in the Notice Inviting Applications of 20 June 2016, bidders are required to submit their bid for at least one city in the first Clock Round. Any bidder failing to do so in the first Clock Round will forfeit its EMD in its entirety.
The Ministry said any assistance in this regard is available on contact helpdesk +91-124- 430 2039 or support@c1eauctions.com. The second batch of FM Radio Phase-III channels comprises 266 channels in 92 cities. The channels include 227 channels in 69 fresh cities and 39 channels in 23 existing cities which had remained unsold as there were no bids.
As in the first stage, the e-auctions will be conducted by C1 India Private Ltd. A Pre Bid conference was held on 11 July 2016, following by training and then a mock auction earlier this month.
After the pre-qualification of bidders, the shortlist is:
| 1 | Abhijit Realtors & lnfraventures (P) Ltd. |
| 2 | Dharmik lnfomedia Private Ltd. |
| 3 | Entertainment Network (I) Ltd. |
| 4 | Hotel Polo Towers (P) Ltd. |
| 5 | JCL Infra Limited |
| 6 | Kal Radio Limited |
| 7 | Malar Publication (P) Ltd. |
| 8 | Purvy Broadcasts (P) Ltd. |
| 9 | Rockstar El Private Limited |
| 10 | Sambhaav Media Ltd. |
| 11 | South Asia FM Limited |
| 12 | The Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. |
| 13 | The Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Co. Ltd. |
| 14 | Ushodaya Enterprises Private Limited |
The first payment of 25 per cent of the successful bid amount will be made within five calendar days, and the remaining within 15 calendar days of the close of the auction and notification of successful bidders by the Government. The e-auction of the first batch of private FM radio phase-III comprising 135 channels in 69 Phase-II existing cities commenced on 27 July and was completed on 9 September after 125 rounds of bidding. Out of these, no bid was received in 13 cities having 26 channels, and partial bids were received in 9 cities with 12 channels remaining unsold, which Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley justified on the ground of “the demand – supply based market economics and bidder’s strategy”. However, he told the Parliament on 4 December 2015 that the Ministry had received the full payment of Rs.1055.9 crore notified on 16 September by 1 October.
Against the cumulative reserve price of Rs.550.18 crore for 135 channels, the government received aggregate provisional commitment of Rs.1156.9 crore for 97 channels in 56 cities. Out of 97 channels, 53 channels in 35 cities were sold at a premium over reserve price whereas 44 channels in 21 cities were sold at reserve price. The Ministry had decided to conduct e-auction of FM Radio Channels in batches under the extant FM Phase-III Policy.
I&B Ministry
India turns up the heat on piracy, orders Telegram to axe 3,142 channels and blocks 800 websites
New legal teeth, nodal officers and notices to intermediaries signal that the government is done playing nice with copyright thieves
NEW DELHI: India’s war on film piracy just got significantly more aggressive. The government has ordered Telegram to remove 3,142 channels distributing pirated content, blocked access to around 800 websites through internet service providers, and put the full weight of freshly sharpened legislation behind the crackdown. The message from New Delhi is unambiguous: the free ride for copyright thieves is over.
Minister of state for information and broadcasting L. Murugan spelled out the legal architecture to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023, he said, now contains specific provisions designed to make piracy a genuinely painful proposition. Sections 6AA and 6AB prohibit unauthorised recording and transmission of films, with violations attracting a minimum of three months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3 lakh. At the upper end, offenders face three years behind bars and fines of up to 5 per cent of a film’s audited gross production cost — a figure that, for a big-budget production, could run into crores.
The legislation also gives the government powers to act against intermediaries hosting infringing content, by notifying them under Section 79(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and compelling takedowns and blocking actions. Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries are legally required to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receiving government notice or court orders. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, add a further layer of obligation, requiring platforms to ensure their services are not used to host or distribute content that violates copyright or proprietary rights.
To put enforcement into practice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has established a dedicated institutional mechanism, complete with nodal officers to receive complaints. Copyright holders, authorised representatives or individuals can report piracy through a prescribed format, after which the government issues notices to intermediaries to disable access to infringing links.
The most headline-grabbing action came on 11 March 2026, when Telegram was formally notified under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act and directed to remove and disable 3,142 channels found to be distributing unauthorised content belonging to OTT platforms, content owners and producers. The complaints that triggered the action came from OTT platforms including JioCinema and Amazon Prime Video, which alleged that copyrighted films, web series and other material were being shared on the platform on a massive scale. Telegram’s architecture, with its large file-sharing limits and capacity for user anonymity, has made it a favoured vehicle for exactly this kind of large-scale piracy.
The Telegram action sits within a broader pattern of escalating enforcement. Just days before the Lok Sabha statement, the ministry banned five OTT platforms for streaming obscene content: MoodXVIP, Koyal Playpro, Digi Movieplex, Feel and Jugnu. In July 2025, the Centre ordered the blocking of 25 OTT platforms accused of streaming obscene, vulgar or pornographic material, a list that included ALTT, ULLU, Big Shots App, Desiflix, Boomex, Navarasa Lite, Gulab App, Kangan App, Bull App, Jalva App, ShowHit, Wow Entertainment, Look Entertainment, Hitprime, Feneo, ShowX, Sol Talkies, Adda TV, HotX VIP, Hulchul App, MoodX, NeonX VIP, Fugi, Mojflix and Triflicks.
Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provides the regulatory hook for those actions, prohibiting platforms from hosting content that is obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy, gender-harassing, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that promotes hatred and violence.
For an industry that loses billions of rupees annually to piracy, the direction of travel is welcome. The question, as always, is not whether the laws exist, but whether the enforcement machinery can keep pace with the ingenuity of those determined to circumvent it. Three thousand channels down, and the pirates are already busy opening three thousand more.
