OTT players raises concern on the regulation of I&B ministry

The over-the-top (OTT) companies have expressed their reservation about the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry instruction to set up a self-regulatory body and have a fixed code of conduct within 100 days.

The companies believe that there already are laws such as the Information Technology Act and the Cable Act to look after objectionable content and the industry should not be burden with an additional body like Digital Content Complaint Council (DCCC), which was formed last month by IAMAI.

The development comes after Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar met OTT firms executives and asked the industry to set up an adjudicatory body and finalise a code of conduct within 100 days. The meeting was attended by officials from ALTBalaji, Hotstar, Voot, Jio, SonyLIV, Arre, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5 and MX Player, among others. As of now, Hotstar, Voot, Jio and SonyLIV .

According to sources present at the event, Amazon Prime had expressed its reservation about the proposal whereas Arre, Netflix, Zee5, MX player and ALTBalaji have sought more time to deliberate. “Everyone including the ministry agreed that any mechanism finally should be formulated in consultation with the whole industry including the creators. The whole industry should be aligned on it.

The OTT platforms will be liable for any non-compliance of the code. It will be the duty of the DCCF to acknowledge a complaint within three working days and resolve it within 10 days from the date of receipt.The intent of this initiative is to offer the consumer a platform to air grievances, make informed choices and allow platforms freedom to create content. The present version imposes a financial penalty of Rs 3 lakh on defaulters.