I&B Ministry
EC endorses prompt payment of FM license fees
NEW DELHI: The Election Commissions uttering may not be music to the ears of the financially-beleaguered private radio FM companies operating stations in several cities of the country. But it has also put a question mark on the validity of the broadcast and cable regulators existence and recommendations.
The election regulator, in charge of overseeing the conduct of elections in India, a process that is underway at the moment, today afternoon observed that keeping in abeyance the licence fee payment of FM radio companies would amount to breach of model code of conduct during polls. This was in response to a query from the information and broadcasting ministry.
I&B ministry bureaucrats today said that private FM players may stand to lose their bank guarantees if the licence fee are not paid up by Friday.
This means that the licence fee, which became payable on 30 April, would have to be coughed up. Even a weeks grace period that is generally given under such circumstances gets over on 7 May.The licence fee of all the private radio FM players put together would amount to approximately Rs 700 million (Rs 70 crore), according to estimates put forth by bureaucrats in the information and broadcasting ministry.
This is a line that had been maintained by the bureaucracy, which had even made noting on files concerned to this effect. The cabinet secretary, earlier, had observed that any change in the present guidelines would need a Cabinet clearance, which at this stage is not prudent as it would attract model code of conduct during polls.
The finance ministry, to which the issue had been referred last week, put the ball back in the I&B ministrys court, saying it was up to the I&B ministry to take a call on the recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Government officials told indiantelevision.com that only the new government could justifiably take up the issue of deferment of licence fee of radio FM companies through a process that is likely to be time consuming.
As and when the new government is formed, the issue (of FM radio) would be taken up afresh, studied and then a cabinet note would be prepared. The whole process could take up to three months as radio FM may not be the top priority for the new government, a senior official explained.
The matter of license fee payment by FM operators in the country has been moving from ministry to ministry for the last two weeks, even as operators sought relief from the crushing fees that fell due in the last week of April.
While the Entertainment Network run Radio Mirchi tried to seek legal succour from the Mumbai high court last week and failed, the Millennium Broadcast operated Win downed shutters, protesting the high license fees and demanding a more rational model. The latest to join the bandwagon is Radio Mid-day, which too has sought legal recourse and relief from the Mumbai HC. The case has not been heard yet.
All private FM players are keenly watching each other’s moves as well as waiting for the government’s next step, which could well decide private FM radio’s fate in the country.
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.
