Advanced Television

India fines channels over ‘adult’ content

January 10, 2013

By Chris Forrester

Adult programming is not allowed on Indian TV, but some broadcasters continually try to get around the legislation. A special committee of India’s Information & Broadcasting regulator has issued a tough set of penalties on three channels that pushed their luck.

The SS TV Channel had showed a movie trailer back in September for an adult movie “Friends with Benefits” even though the film had not been rated or cleared for showing on TV. This action was found to be in breach of India’s tough rules, and the channel has now been banned for two weeks. Cable and DTH platforms are forbidden to carry the channel from midnight on January 15th.

Two other channels were also hit by the rules. Zing TV showed ‘Hawas’, a steamy 2004 Bollywood movie that is best described by its English-language translation, ‘Lust’. And showed “passionate love making and kissing scenes between a couple, who were shown to be clinging to each other and writhing in bed in an explicit portrayal of sexual desires overpowering them,” according to the I&B regulator.

India’s Enterr 10 channel cheekily showed 3 movies, ‘Musafir’ on September 29th 2011, ‘Plan’ on 19 October 2011 and ‘Aashiq Banaya Apnne’ on January 31st 2012.

Zing and Enterr10 received a 24-hour ban, effective January 12th.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Content, Policy, Regulation