The Centre on Tuesday issued a government order that The government has brought video streaming over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Hotstar, and others under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.It amended the (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, to make the changes.These platforms are under the purview of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
In India, there are no laws or rules regulating OTT platforms Unlike Films Certification , television, print or radio, which follow guidelines released by governments.
OTT platforms, classified as digital media have no regulation on the choice of content they offered, the subscription rates, certification for adult movies and others. It contain objectifying scenes , glorified scenes , sensetive scenes as well as some other cases that can hurt regional as well as human sentiments.
What’s the meaning of Regulating OTT platforms & its Contents ?
Regulating OTT platforms to bring the OTT platforms under the I&B ministry . With this move, Government to bring films and audio-visual programmes made available by online content providers” as well as “news and current affairs content on online platforms”, the first challenge before the OTT platforms would be keeping a check on their content.it also means that these platforms would have to apply for certification and approval of the content they wish to stream like How Film industry applying censorship certificate for their films before release from Censor Board of Film Certification ( CBFC ).
