The common perception is that corruption in the media refers to hanky-panky in the news media business. Therefore, private treaties, paid news, ad for edit deals is what has usually raised hackles. However, for some time now, there has been talk of rising corruption in the mainstream entertainment industry also. There is talk of film studios paying a bribe to sell their satellite rights to a TV company, of production firms paying off programming heads to get a show approved or extended. There has been talk of distribution executives in TV firms taking a cut on inflated carriage fee bills from multi-system operates or MSOs (the distributors of TV signals).

‘Reality Check Fraud, bribery and corruption in India’s M&E industry’, released earlier this month by EY, shows that the maximum instances of fraud happen in areas where acquisition of films, talent, rights or carriage fees are involved