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Government has brought some of the Over The Top(OTT) platforms under the ambit of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
What are the OTT platforms?
- They 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.
- OTT 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.
- They generally offer some content for free and charge a monthly subscription fee for premium content which is generally unavailable elsewhere.
- Examples of OTT platforms are Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, Hotstar etc
Who regulates them currently?
- OTT platforms have been brought under the ambit of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
- Earlier these OTT platforms were under the purview of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Impact of new regulation
- With this decision, the first challenge before the OTT platforms would be keeping a check on their content
- The government’s move to bring 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.
Source: The Indian Express
