MUMBAI: Now you see them now you don't. The game of hide and seek that has been going on the last few years between adult channels trying to get around existing restrictions and the authorities has come to the fore again. The government has just clamped down on three erotic channels beaming off Asiasat 3 over Indian skies.

Three adult channels BlueKiss, BlueKiss Express, BlueKiss Promo and TBL have come under the government scanner in this regard.

The ban that came into effect late last week has been put in place as the government anticipates that these channels can be viewed by the Indian public after buying smart cards from abroad.

Though these channels are not freely available in India at the moment, the fact that they are being downlinked off Asiasat 3 means that anyone who accesses the smart card can get to view the content.

These channels air programming which are adult and explicit in nature, according to information and broadcasting ministry sources.

The programming of these channels breach the specified codes set by the government for channels beaming into India, irrespective of the fact whether they are uplinked from here or not.

Concerned with the possibility of increasing sleaze that could be available to India viewers through satellite channels, the Indian government had cancelled the uplinking permission for Cine World, an English movie channel, in the recent past for a month.

By and large, the Indian government has been fairly liberal as far as television channels are concerned. One of the rare cases of a clamp down related to PTV during the Kargil war, but the ban was for a limited period.