Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited has surrendered the permissions given by Indian authorities to downlink AXN and AXN HD television channels.
The Indian government, while acceding to the surrender request, has also directed distribution platforms to refrain from carrying the two TV channels on their platforms, according to an advisory on Thursday.
In a letter earlier this week to the company, which also manages other Sony-branded TV channels and a streaming platform in India, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) said the two TV channels have been “deleted from the list of permitted private satellite TV channels in India” as desired by the company managing the affairs of the TV channels.
Cable Television Network Rules specify that cable operators or MSOs shall not carry or include on their cable services any television broadcast or channel that has not been registered by the central or federal government for being viewed within the territory of India.
Citing relevant regulation, MIB advisory stated, “A1l the MSOs/LCOs are hereby directed not to downlink the above-mentioned channel on their network, failing which appropriate/suitable action will be initiated against the defaulter(s).”
Indianbroadcastingworld.com, however, could not ascertain independently the reason behind surrender of downlink permissions given to AXN, which debuted in India in the decade of 2000. The HD version of the action channel was introduced a few years later.