I&B Ministry
Jaipal Reddy gets I&B; Maran communications, IT
MUMBAI: As predicted by indiantelevision.com, senior Congress leader S. Jaipal Reddy was allotted the information and broadcasting minister’s portfolio late last night. Reddy, who has been I&B minister before and was instrumental in piloting the Broadcasting Bill into parliament in 1997, will also handle the culture portfolio
The other important portfolio for the television industry is the communications minister’s. And that will be looked after by DMK elect Dayanidhi Maran. Maran’s elder brother Kalanidhi heads the Chennai-based Sun Television Network. Dayanidhi himself had steered the group’s cable TV operations SCV into the force that it is today.
Maran is quite well suited for the task and it is quite likely that he will do something for the cable TV sector because of his group’s strong involvement in the same. The issue of the rollout of conditional access halted last year and has been brought under the purview of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which has been soliciting industry and the people’s view on the way forward. With Maran in the hot seat, industry should expect some firm decisions from the man on this score.
The key issue is whether Reddy will revive his pet Bill and again commence discussions on the setting up of a Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India quite distinct from Trai.
Lobbying has been on for the past couple of years to merge the I&B and communications ministry in an era of convergence. But some circles in industry have been expressing the view that broadcasting should be kept independent of communications and under the I&B ministry.
The other ministerial appointments include:
Cabinet Ministers
Shivraj Patil, Congress: Home
Pranab Mukherjee, Congress: Defence
P Chidambaram, Congress: Finance
Arjun Singh, Congress: Human resource development
Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party: Agriculture, food & civil supplies, consumer affairs and public distribution.
Laloo Prasad Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal: Railways
Ram Vilas Paswan, Lok Janshakti Party: Chemicals and fertilisers. He will also take charge of steel.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress: Parliamentary Affairs and urban development
S Jaipal Reddy, Congress: Information and broadcasting. He will also look after culture.
Sisram Ola, Congress: Labour and employment
Mahavir Prasad, Congress: Small scale, agro and rural industries
P R Kyndiah, Congress: Tribal affairs and development of the Northeast
T R Baalu, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam: Road transport and highways
Shankarsinh Vaghela, Congress: Textiles
Kamal Nath, Congress: Commerce and industry
H R Bhardwaj, Congress: Law and justice
P M Sayeed, Congress: Power
Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, RJD: Rural development
Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, Congress: Water resources
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Congress: Petroleum & Natural Gas. He will also take charge of Panchayati Raj.
Sunil Dutt, Congress: Youth affairs and Sports
Shibu Soren, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha: Coal, mines and minerals
A Raja, DMK: Environment and forest
Dayanidhi Maran, DMK: Communication and IT
Meira Kumar, Congress: Social justice and empowerment
K Chandrasekhar Rao, Telangana Rashtra Samithi: Shipping
Anbumani Ramdoss, Pattali Makkal Katchi: Health and family welfare
Ministers of state (independent charge)
Santosh Mohan Deb, Congress: Heavy industries and public enterprises
Jagdish Tytler, Congress: Non-resident affairs
Oscar Fernandes, Congress: Statistics and programme implementation
Renuka Choudhury, Congress: Tourism
Subodh Kant Sahay, Congress: Food Processing
Kapil Sibal, Congress: Science and technology, ocean development
Vilas Muttemwar, Congress: Non-conventional energy sources
Kumari Selja, Congress: Urban employment and poverty alleviation
Praful Patel, NCP: Civil aviation
Premchand Gupta: Company affairs
Ministers of state
E Ahamed, Indian Union Muslim League: External affairs
Suresh Pachauri, Congress: Personnel, parliamentary affairs
B K Handique: Defence, parliamentary affairs
P Lakshmi, Congress: Health and family welfare
Dasari Narayan Rao, Congress: Coal and mines
Shaqeel Ahmed, Congress: Communications & IT
Rao Indrajit Singh, Congress: External affairs
Naranbhai Rathwa, Congress: Railways
Rehman Khan, Congress: Chemicals and fertilisers
K H Muniyappa, Congress: Road transport and highways
M V Rajasekharan, Congress: Planning.
Kantilal Bhuria, Congress Agriculture, food and civil supplies, consumer affairs and public distribution
Manikrao Gavit, Congress: Home affairs
Sriprakash Jaiswal, Congress: Home affairs
Prithviraj Chavan, Congress: Prime pinister’s office
Mohammed Taslimuddin, Congress: Heavy industries and public enterprises
Suryakanta Patil, NCP: Rural development, parliamentary affairs
Mohammed A A Fatmi, RJD: HRD
A Narendra, TRS: Rural development
R Velu, PMK: Railways
S S Palanimanickam, DMK: Commerce and industry
S Regupathy, DMK: Home affairs
K Venkatapathy, DMK: Law and justice
S Jegadeesan: Social Justice and empowerment
E V K S Elangovan, Congress: Petroleum and natural gas
Kanti Singh, RJD: HRD
Namo Narain Meena, Congress: Environment and forests
Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav, RJD: Water resources
Akhilesh Singh, RJD: Agriculture, food and civil supplies, consumers affairs and public distribution
An official government release pointed out that prime minister Manmohan Singh would look after the ministries that have not been allocated.
I&B Ministry
Prasar Bharati extends Waves OTT channel onboarding deadline to 31 March 2026
Broadcasters gain extra time for applications on revenue-sharing streaming platform.
MUMBAI: Riding the Waves of digital delay, Prasar Bharati has thrown broadcasters a lifeline by pushing back the deadline for hopping aboard its OTT platform because who doesn’t love a bit more time to stream their dreams? India’s public service broadcaster, on 19 February 2026, announced an extension to the original cut-off from 1 December 2025, giving eager satellite TV channels until 31 March 2026 to submit their bids for a spot on Waves. This follows the initial call-out dated 17 November 2025 under notice No. OTT/2(02)/2024/Platform/529, inviting licensed linear channels to join the streaming party for a one-year stint starting from their onboard date.
Only channels permitted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) for downlinking and distribution in India qualify, and applications must come straight from the companies holding those golden tickets no third-party proxies allowed. Broadcasters need to supply an SCTE-35 marker-enabled feed to signal ad breaks, ensuring the stream flows smoothly without awkward pauses.
Here’s where the money tune plays, Successful channels get carried on a revenue-sharing basis, splitting the net spoils 65:35, that’s 65 per cent to the channel and 35 per cent to Prasar Bharati after deducting costs like transcoding, CDN bandwidth, and ad agency commissions. Prasar Bharati handles ad insertions at marker points, and if slots go unfilled, they’ll plug in promos for themselves or the channels, keeping the vibe promotional yet practical.
No room for fuzzy details applicants must provide crystal-clear proof of their channel’s genre (think GEC, movies, music, news & current affairs, sports, devotional, kids, or others) and language, backed by evidence from MSO/DTH placements, regulatory nods like TRAI or MIB, DAVP docs, or even BARC ratings. Ambiguity? That’s a swift rejection slip.
Channels get ranked by their DAVP rate card prowess, with the highest bidders in each category snagging the streaming slots, it’s like a broadcast beauty contest judged on ad rates across time bands. The application drill? Fill out the prescribed form in Annexure-1, bundle it with docs from Annexure-2 (including permissions, logos, PAN, GST, undertakings, and authority letters), and email the lot to ddfreedish@prasarbharati.gov.in by 5:00 PM on 31 March 2026.
Interim submissions aren’t left in the lurch, they’ll be considered too. Winners receive a ‘Letter of Allotment’, followed by a must-sign agreement in two originals within 15 days, plus tech details for seamless integration. For the full playbook, dip into clause 11.2 of Prasar Bharati’s Content Sourcing Policy 2024 on their website.
In a world where streaming wars rage on, this extension might just be the breather broadcasters need to tune up their pitches after all, better late than never in the OTT ocean.
