I&B Ministry
Report illegal TV channels, Govt alerted
NEW DELHI: While stressing that the law was clear that no cable operator could beam any private TV channel which had not been registered with the Government, the minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said today that a total of 889 private satellite channels had been given valid permission under Uplinking/ Downlinking Guidelines as on 31 January 2017.
Rathore told the Parliament that Sub Rule 6(6) of the Cable Television Network Rules 1994 specifies that no cable operator shall carry or include in his cable service any television broadcast or channel which has not been registered by the Central Government for being viewed within the territory of India.
The Ministry has from time to time issued advisories to State Governments to constitute State and District Level Monitoring Committees for broadcast content monitoring.
The Ministry on 8 July 2016 issued an advisory to the Chief Secretaries of all States/UTs Governments, the District Collectors and the Multi System Operators (MSOs)/ Local Cable Operators (LCOs) to ensure that no unpermitted TV channel, are transmitted/ re-transmitted in the Cable Networks and to take action against the defaulter under the provisions of the Cable Television Networks Act 1995 to stop transmission of these channels.
In pursuance to this, necessary action had been taken by authorized officers and FIR lodged against the concerned LCO.
In mid-2016, the Ministry had also written to the Home Ministry to bring to its notice any illegal channels being beamed in the country.
However, the I and B Ministry had last month put on its website a list of 899 as at the end of 2016, with nine new television channels cleared in December 2016.
According to that list, permission had been initially granted to 1054 channels but later the licences of 155 channels had been cancelled. The 899 channels included 500 general entertainment channels and 399 news and current affairs channels.
Of these, while 788 were allowed to uplink and downlink in India, 20 were permitted to uplink from India but not downlink in the country and 91 channels uplinked from overseas were permitted downlinking into India.
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I&B Ministry
MIB cancels registrations of 114 MSOs in compliance crackdown
Total active MSOs now 756 after 1,159 exits since early 2025.
MUMBAI- MIB just pulled the plug on 114 more cable operators because when the regulator says “cut the cord,” it really means cut the cord. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has cancelled the registrations of 114 multi-system operators (MSOs) for non-compliance, denial of security clearance and suppression of critical information, continuing its year-long clean-up of India’s cable distribution ecosystem.
As of 28 February 2026, the total number of registered MSOs has fallen to 756 after 1,159 operators exited the market through cancellations, voluntary surrenders or lapsed licences. This follows a similar exercise in the previous year when, as of 31 March 2025, around 1,045 registrations had expired, been surrendered or cancelled, bringing the count down from higher levels to 845 before the latest round.
The sustained contraction signals a structural shift toward a more organised, compliant sector. Regulatory scrutiny has intensified on operational transparency, adherence to licensing norms and security clearances, effectively weeding out smaller or non-compliant players.
Industry observers view the moves as a deliberate push toward consolidation, where only operators meeting strict standards remain active. Additional rejections of over 14 applications last year on grounds such as non-payment of dues and suppression of information further underscore the ministry’s stricter stance.
In India’s cable TV landscape, where channels once multiplied faster than viewers could count them, MIB is quietly rewiring the entire grid, one cancellation at a time until only the cleanest signals survive.
