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Published by Enhelion, 2021-11-09 00:36:53

Module 4(2)

Module 4(2)

REGULATION OF OTT PLATFORMS IN INDIA

The Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 were amended by
the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Three Hundred and Fifty
Seventh Amendment Rules, 2020. As a result, in the second schedule, under the
heading “MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING
(SOOCHANA AUR PRASARAN MANTRALAYA)” after entry 22, the
following sub-heading and entries were inserted-
“VA. DIGITAL/ONLINE MEDIA
22A. Films and Audio-Visual programmes made available by online content
providers.
22B. News and current affairs content on online platforms.”.

This implies that movies, audio-visuals, news and current affairs content on
online platforms will now come under the ambit of Information and Broadcasting
Ministry. The government regulations will also apply to news on social media
platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
This move has a significant impact on the OTT (over-the-top) platforms1 like
Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video etc. Till now, the OTT platforms were under the
purview of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and
there were no rules with respect to the choice of content they offered, the
subscription rates, certification for adult movies etc., considering it was a
relatively new medium of entertainment.

1 OTT 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.

However, recently, the apex court sought response from the government on a
petition for regulating OTT platforms by an autonomous body. The petition
sought directions to constitute an autonomous body or a board for monitoring and
filtering content as well as regulating videos on various OTT platforms in India.

The first implication of this move for OTT platforms would be keeping a check
on their content. Further, these platforms would have to apply for certification
and approval of the content they wish to stream.


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