Regulatory code for OTT content

In News-Recently, The Government has received several grievances/complaints regarding the content of programmes on OTT platforms.

• The latest issue was over an Amazon Prime series Tandav.
• Following the controversy that some scenes of the series referring to Hindu gods were derogatory.
• It has been claimed that content on OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are full of “sex, violence, abuse, vulgarity and disrespect to religious sentiments”.

Recent Step

• The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had several rounds of consultations with the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) impressing upon them the need for an appropriate self-regulatory mechanism for content over OTT platforms.

Implications –

• The central government’s move to bring the OTT platforms under the I&B Ministry could also mean that these platforms would have to apply for certification and approval of the content they wish to stream.
• This in itself could give rise to many conflicts as most OTT platforms have content that could otherwise be censored by the certification boards in India.
• OTT platforms are likely to resist any plans to censor the content being provided and streamed by them as these platforms have often chosen to produce movies and documentaries on politically sensitive but relevant topics.

About OTT platforms

• OTT, or over-the-top platforms, are audio and video hosting and streaming services which started out as content hosting platforms, but soon branched out into the production and release of short movies, feature films, documentaries and web-series themselves
• These platforms offer a range of content and use artificial intelligence to suggest users the content they are likely to view based on their past viewership on the platform.
• Most OTT platforms generally offer some content for free and charge a monthly subscription fee for premium content which is generally unavailable elsewhere.
• The premium content is usually produced and marketed by the OTT platform themselves, in association with established production houses which historically have made feature films.

 OTT platforms in India

• There are currently 40 OTT platforms operating in India.
• Government as the first step towards regulation, amended the “allocation of Business Rules” in November last year bringing all online platforms under the mandate of the I&B Ministry and all platforms were told to register with the Ministry. 
• The laws regulating OTT platforms
• In India, there are no laws or rules regulating OTT platforms as it is a relatively new medium of entertainment.
• The regulation of such platforms has been widely debated and discussed therefore the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), a representative body of the OTT platforms has developed a self-regulatory model.
• On examination, it was felt that the mechanism proposed by IAMAI did not give adequate cognizance to content prohibited under law and there were issues of conflict of interest, which were communicated to IAMAI in September 2020.
• The Online Curated Content Providers or OCCPs had also proposed a Digital Curated Content Complaints Council along with the self-regulatory mechanism as a part of its proposed two-tier structure.
•  The proposal, however, was shot down by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which will now oversee these platforms.

Source :TH