MSO registrations stall at 842 in May'25 as Ministry of I&B tightens grip on non-compliance
The Ministry has witnessed a rise in cancelled and expired multi-system operators' (MSO) licenses in May, which now stand at a total of 1165- as compared with April'25 (1163). Meanwhile, the new registrations remain stagnant for a second consecutive month.
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The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has released its updated status on Multi-System Operator (MSO) registrations, revealing that the number of active registered MSOs remained unchanged at 842 between April 30 and May 31, 2025.
However, the number of MSOs whose registrations were cancelled, surrendered, or expired rose slightly from 1,049 in April to 1,051 in May, reflecting a continued tightening of compliance enforcement.
Additionally, the Ministry reported that 114 MSO applications had been cancelled, rejected, or closed by May 31—unchanged from the previous month.
This data underscores a continued crackdown by the MIB on non-compliant operators, many of whom have failed to update subscriber data or meet regulatory obligations under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and associated rules.
In March, 1,045 MSOs were found non-compliant, while 845 were registered with the Ministry.
In August 2024, there were over 850 registered MSOs, and a year prior, the number stood at 998.
One of the terms and conditions of the MSO registration is that MSOs shall comply with the provisions of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act. 1995, and the Rules made there under, as amended and adhered to all the terms and conditions of the registration. Failing to do so, the permission granted is liable to be cancelled or suspended. MSOs are also required to submit a list of their subscribers and other details as per the requests made by the Ministry from time to time.
Further, according to Regulation 15(1) of the Interconnection Regulations, 2017, it is mandatory for every distributor of channels to conduct an audit of their system once in a calendar year; if they fail to do so, they are marked as 'non-compliant'. Following which, MSOs have to provide the requisite information or make any reference to the Ministry regarding their compliance status. In absence of the same, in exercise of powers conferred under Section 4(7) of the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, the MSO registrations of the scheduled MSOs are cancelled with immediate effect.
In the past, via one of its advisories, the Ministry had stated that all MSOs who provide their own programming service to their own subscribers directly or through one or multiple Local Cable Operators must register to the platform services.
