I&B Ministry
I&B minister Dasmunsi hints at major revamp of draft broadcast bill
NEW DELHI: You can kiss the Broadcast Services Regulation Bill 2006 – a draft of which is doing the rounds of various ministries and industry stakeholders these days – goodbye, Well, almost.
“Whenever I bring a Bill to Parliament, it’d be the most media-friendly legislation in the whole world,” information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi today said, hinting that the draft is likely to go undergo major revamp.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a Cabinet briefing, Dasmunsi added that proper consultation with various stake holders would be held before draft legislation is taken to the Union Cabinet or Parliament.
Asked by indiantelevision.com whether the Broadcast Bill 2006 would be tabled in Parliament during the forthcoming monsoon session, the minister said the endeavour be so “after holding discussions with everybody.”
“Our effort and endeavour would be to do so during this session and if that does not happen, then we’ll see in the next session. We would not do anything to gag the media,” Dasmunsi explained, making it clear that the government has taken serious view of the all round stringent criticism of a draft media legislation.
The monsoon session of Parliament begins on 24 July and there seems little time left to hold proper discussions with the industry on the Bill, which has been drafted surreptiously and left the players stumped when unraveled by a section of the media.
Making an overt bid to keep in good humour the media, which came in for praise from the Cabinet today for its sensitive coverage of the serial Mumbai blasts earlier this week, Dasmunsi said, “All fears (of broadcast industry) will be removed.”
Proposals on cross media restrictions, powers bestowed on authorities to take action against the media and TV channels on the flimsiest of grounds, content censorship (which is being drafted separately, but could be made part of this Bill or legislation at a later stage) are aimed at strangling the media and cripple business models in the name of safety against monopolistic trends.
The proposed autonomous Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India (Brai) has been given powers in the Bill that permit it to run amok if interpreted incorrectly by it. What’s more, Brai’s chief executive would be a serving government official of additional secretary’s rank, drawing a salary from the government.
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.
