I&B Ministry
MIB does not keep record of non-carriage of mandatory channels: Jaitley
NEW DELHI: While multi-system operators (MSOs) and direct-to-home (DTH) operators are expected to mandatorily carry a total of 24 Doordarshan channels in digital addressable system (DAS) areas, the number of channels to be carried in the non-DAS areas is 10.
The channels to be carried by DAS and non-DAS areas includes Gyan Darshan, which is currently off-air but Doordarshan sources tell Indiantelevision.com that some arrangement was being worked out to re-start the channel run by the Indira Gandhi National Open University.
The channels to be carried in the DAS areas include 22 DD channels including DD National, DD Bharati, DD News, DD India, DD Sports, and Kisan Channel. The other DD channels are language channels. Other than DD, the channels for DAS areas are Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha TV, and Gyan Darshan.
The channels to be carried in non-DAS areas are: DD National, DD News, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV, DD Sports, DD Urdu, DD Bharati, Kisan Channel, Gyan Darshan, and one regional language of Doordarshan channel of the State in which the cable operator is located.
The Government has also listed a schedule of channels to be carried mandatorily by operators including local cable operators in the 35 states and union territories.
Notifications were issued in this regard in September 2013 and again on 25 May this year.
Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament that his Ministry does not have any record of such complaints received as the authorised officers – district magistrate, or a sub-divisional magistrate, or a Commissioner of Police within his local limits of jurisdiction – have powers to take action for non-carriage of the mandatory channels by cable operators on their networks under Section 11 of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995.
An advisory was also issued in June when it was brought to the notice of the Ministry that a few MSOs were not carrying some of the mandatory channels. It was clarified that non-carriage of these channels shall attract action /punishment under Sections 11and l8 of the Cable Act. Earlier, the Ministry had written to all concerned registered MSOs for DAS notified areas to carry the mandatory channels on their networks.
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.
