Following representations by CASBAA and other industry organizations, the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) recently issued a public statement clarifying the absolute necessity for TV distribution platforms to obtain the authorization of content owners/broadcasters before distributing their channels. The specific matter of the MIB’s ruling concerned “new media” platforms such as IPTV. The Ministry underlined that such platforms must respect Rule 6(3) of the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994, which requires that MSOs and cable operators must have licenses from copyright owners in order to distribute their content.