I&B Ministry
I&B seeks cabinet nod for downlink policy
NEW DELHI: Finally, the information and broadcasting ministry has taken to the Cabinet secretariate the downlinking policy that aims at having all TV channels beaming into India register with a designated authority here, apart from completing some other formalities. The policy is yet to be listed on the Cabinet meet agenda.
The ministry, according to sources, is playing it down as the issue could not be listed for at least the last meeting of the Cabinet, which was to meet today also. However, due to the demise of former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao yesterday, today’s meeting has got truncated.
The downlink policy will willy-nilly give the government more control over TV channels, pay or free to air.
Over a month back, information and broadcasting ministry Jaipal Reddy had said that the government was in the process of finalising a downlinking policy that is expected to look into issues such as allowing FII investment in news channels and making registration mandatory for foreign channels beaming into India.
At present only 26 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) is allowed in TV news ventures and FIIs are out of the picture altogether. In order to have an effective control over channels beaming into India, but uplinking from abroad, the government will ask them to register themselves in India and set up an India office. This is expected to help it tackle issues such as adult content, especially on some fashion channels.
Though the government is keeping very quiet on the exact nature of the downlink policy that it’s seeking a nod from the Cabinet, sources in the ministry indicated that all channels beaming into India may soon have to open their profit and loss accounts and ownership patterns to the government or a regulatory body irrespective of the fact whether they are part of a privately held company or a listed entity.
This, amongst others, is one of the major points of the downlink policy, which has been in the making for quite some time now.
With the cricket telecast rights issue almost making a habit of landing in the court — ESPN Star Sports is at present embroiled in one such controversy over Indian cricket team’s tour of Bangladesh — the Indian government would also make it mandatory for feeds of events of national importance to be given to pubcaster Doordarshan.
The list of events would be notified and would certainly include sports like cricket that has cult status in the country.
Needless to state that as and when this law is put into force, certain amendments would have to be made in existing rules like the Cable TV (Network) Regulation Act, 1995 and the DTH guidelines to accommodate the `must-provide’ clause, which is mainly aimed at benefiting DD.
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.
