The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has proposed bringing under its purview the contents being streamed on the several over-the-top (OTT) platforms, said a top ministry official said on Tuesday. At present, OTT platforms that are digitally streamed falls under the domain of the Ministry of Information and Technology (IT). "OTT being a digital platform will fall under the purview of the Ministry of IT but now we are proposing a decision that the content should fall within the purview of I&B ministry," said Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Secretary Amit Khare.

He said "there is a need for convergence of various ministries (in this regard), particularly in the ways changes are happening, (it) is extremely necessary". Khare rued that regulatory regimes in India have been developed as per the platforms and the country has no regulations as of now for the emerging media like OTT players.

Out of "five different media -- print, radio, TV, films and OTT -- four of them have certain kinds of regulatory practices and one is unregulated", he said adding that currently a film released on OTT is not covered under the Central Board of Film Certification as it not exhibited as a film there. Recently during the lockdown, several OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5, ATLBalaji have witnessed a huge jump in their subscription.

 
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