I&B Ministry
India has just reached 886 TV channels against the target of 1500 channels by end of 12th Plan
NEW DELHI: With the government having given valid permission to a total of 886 private television channels including 399 news channels, it appears highly unlikely that the country will achieve the target of 1500 channels by March next year as assumed by the State Finance Commission while drafting its proposals for the 12th Plan (2012-17).
Interestingly, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had given permission to 1035 channels but later cancelled permission to 149, thus adding twentythree more refused permission after 31 March this year.
Thus the number of general entertainment channels is 487 as on 31 July 2016.
Twenty-two channels including seven news channels have been permitted to uplink from India but not downlink within the country, thus leadiong to an increase of two general entertainment channels since 31 March 2016.
A total of 768 channels including 391 GECs are allowed to uplink and downlink in the country thus showing a reduction of one newx channel in the past four months.
A total of 96 including 81 GECs are uplinked from overseas but allowed to downlink into TV homes in the country, and there had been no change in this number for the past four months.
Interestingly, seven channels have lost their licences after 20 July 2016, when a list posted on the Ministry’s website in response to a Paliament question after the controversy over Peace TV and other illegal channels showed a total of 893 permitted channels.
After 30 April 2016, the lone news channel cleared is ATE TV of Airtravel Enterprises India
Limited;
The Non-News channels cleared are B4U Plus and B4U HITZ of B4U Television Network I
Pvt. Ltd; MAAS TV of Gokann International Media Pvt. Ltd; Nambikkai Television in Tamil and Goodnews TV of Goodnews Channel Pvt. Ltd; and MK Tunes amd MK Six of Madurai Krishan Network Pvt. Ltd.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry site (mib.nic.in) also contains the full details of the owners of these channels, the languages in which they will beam, and the date on which the clearance came.
However, there are no details of the 149 channels denied permission.
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.
