BookMyShow, District Partner I&B Min To Boost India’s Live Events Space
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Team SSI
- August 29, 2025
BookMyShow, District Partner I&B Min – The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) announced on 29 August 2025 that it held the first meeting of a Joint Working Group (JWG) for the promotion of the live events industry after discussions with Eternal-owned District, BookMyShow and other live ticketing and events platforms.
The group included representatives from major players in the industry like BookMyShow, Eternal’s District, Wizcraft, and other stakeholders, along with members from the MIB, DPIIT, and officials from several state governments.
“The Secretary, Ministry of I&B, highlighted the Government’s commitment to making India one of the Top 5 global live entertainment destinations by 2030, with the potential to create 15–20 Mn jobs, expand infrastructure, and strengthen India’s cultural influence worldwide,” the government said in a statement.
The main points discussed were as follows:
Single Window Platform
The government plans to integrate all live event clearances into a single platform, the Indian Cine Hub Portal. This portal was launched last June by the MIB to provide a single-window system for film permissions, incentives, and resource mapping across India. Now, the plan is to also include live event clearances on the portal, though the timeline for this is not yet confirmed.
Music Licensing & IP Rights
A “Centralised Digital Music Licensing Registry” is expected to launch by October 2025. This will streamline music licensing and IP rights management, in partnership with rights societies such as the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS), Recorded Music Performance Limited (RMPL), and Indian Music Industry Trust (IMI-Trust), among others.
Development Of Resources
To support the live events sector, the government is considering GST rebates, MSME recognition for live entertainment, a policy to allow multi-use of stadiums and public spaces for live shows, and adding live entertainment skills into the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).
India’s live music and events industry is growing rapidly, especially after big events like the Coldplay concerts in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, and with international festivals like Lollapalooza entering the country.
In a whitepaper released earlier this year, MIB-backed WAVES pointed out that the 2024–25 period is a turning point for this sector, with event tourism seeing nearly half a million fans travelling between cities to attend live music events. This shows the rise of a strong music-tourism economy.
For example, the Coldplay concert saw BookMyShow struggling with ticket scalping and unauthorised resales. Similarly, Eternal’s District faced the same issue during Diljit Dosanjh’s ‘Dil-luminati Tour – India’ late last year.
Still, India’s live entertainment industry remains one of the fastest-growing segments in media and entertainment, expanding at 15% CAGR from INR 20,861 Cr in 2024. “With rising demand in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities, increasing music tourism, and premium audience experiences, the sector is becoming an important part of India’s creative economy,” the statement said.
