Govt won't appoint any member in self-regulating body: Javadekar to OTTs

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar on Thursday interacted with representatives of various OTT platforms including from Alt Balaji, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Jio, Zee5, Viacom18, Shemaroo, MxPlayer, etc.

During the meeting, the minister clarified that in the self-regulating body, no member will be appointed by the government, putting an end to speculations.

Stressing on the need for self-regulation, Javadekar said that the government has done several rounds of consultation with the OTT players in the past.

"Javadekar stated that he had received representations from cinema and TV industries that while there were regulations for them, none existed for OTT industry. Thus, it was decided that government would come out with progressive institutional mechanism for OTT players and develop a level playing field with the idea of self-regulation," the government said in a release

Informing the industry representatives about the provisions of the rules, Javadekar said it merely requires them to disclose information and that there is no requirement of registration of any kind with the government. 

The ninister added that a form for this will be ready soon. Further, the rules focus on self classification of content instead of any form of censorship. Further, OTT platforms are expected to develop an effective grievance redressal mechanism.

Speaking on the power of the government, under the rules, Javadekar informed that the government will create inter-departmental committee to look at complaints which remain unresolved at the self-regulatory level.