Mumbai: SonyLIV has announced a major change to its streaming services. The OTT platform has confirmed that soon it is going to discontinue Sony live TV channels from the app. Previously, the users were able to watch Sony TV channels through the streaming app, which will now be removed from 30 August 2023.

According to media reports, SonyLIV has sent messages to subscribers regarding the discontinuation of live TV on the app. The message mentioned that the live TV channels will be discontinued from 30 August. SonyLIV has also updated its Term of Use policy to effect the new changes.

OTT platforms, including Hotstar and Zee5, are taking the decision to discontinue live TV channels from their services with an aim to strive for full compliance with regulations, aiming to steer clear of any legal ambiguities.

In September 2022, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) came up with recommendations on 'Market Structure/Competition in Cable TV Services'. In its recommendations, TRAI said that many MSOs opined that unlicensed video and audio streaming services as well as OTT platforms should be definitely accounted for the purpose of determining market dominance.

TRAI had also contended that broadcasters are supplying signals of linear channels to OTT platforms in a manner that bypasses Clause 5.6 of the Uplinking and Downlinking guidelines for television channels.

According to Clause 5.6 of the policy guidelines issued on 5 December 2011, pertaining to the downlinking of TV channels, a broadcaster shall provide satellite TV channel signal reception decoders only to registered entities such as MSOs (Multi-System Operators), Cable Operators, DTH operators, providers of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services and HITS operators.