over-the-top

Prakash Javadekar

US President

A still from the web series Leila

Pressure is mounting on the(OTT) players – the people who have brought you riveting dramas like Game of Thrones and Narcos – to adopt some form of censorship for their content.Information and Broadcasting Ministeron Monday gave the industry a hundred days to set up an adjudicatory body and finalise a code of conduct.Javadekar met head honchos of nearly all the top OTT platforms in Delhi and cited the example of China where streaming sites have accepted a set of conditions that now govern their content.In a 45-minute meeting that was attended by representatives of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5, MX Player, ALTBalaji, Hotstar, Voot, Jio, SonyLIV and Arre, four OTT platforms refused to be a part of the Digital Content Complaint Council (DCCC), an adjudicatory body formed last month.Sources said that Amazon Prime, at the very outset, had conveyed its displeasure over the idea, whereas Netflix, Zee5, MX player and ALTBalaji have sought more time to deliberate.So far, only Hotstar, Voot, Jio, SonyLIV and Arre have signed up with DCCC, a brainchild of Internet and Mobile Association (IAMA) and the I&B Ministry.IAMA had drafted a code of self-regulation for OTT platforms on January 17, 2019 titled ‘Code of Best Practices for Online Curated Content Providers’. This curbs OTT platforms from streaming content which is banned by Indian courts, disrespects the national emblem, outrages religious sentiments, promotes violence against the state, or depicts child pornography.Just last week, Disney-owned Hotstar had blocked the latest episode popular show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” that was critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the episode, which is available on YouTube, and originally put up aroundDonald Trump’s visit to India, Oliver talked about policies of the Modi and recent protests Modi’s citizenship measures.Javadekar had last met OTT platform representatives in October and sought suggestions from them to come up with mutually agreeable terms.The formation of DCCC was announced in February with Justice (retired) A P Shah as its chairman. Though the composition and strength of the council is yet to be finalised, it is likely to have five to seven members, two of them representing OTT players.As the need for self-regulation was debated at Monday’s meeting, Javadekar cited the example of his own house where a fire-stick is used to watch content across platforms. He pointed out that in most Indian households, where the entire family watches most OTT content together, it is necessary to regulate what can be watched together.One of the signatories of DCCC told Mumbai Mirror that the government has so far told the players that there will be no censorship of content, instead it expects the companies to come up with better segregation and categorization of content to reach out to different age groups of viewership. “While there is no consensus among OTT players right now, we hope once DCCC is in place, we will have more players join us,” he maintained.Javadekar cited examples of China, France and Singapore on government-imposed regulation, though members present pointed out that Singapore has self-regulation.While Amazon Prime, ZEE5, Voot, Hotstar, ALTBalaji, Jio and SonyLIV remained unavailable for comment, a Netflix representative declined to comment.Karan Bedi, CEO, MX Player, described the meeting as constructive. “All, including the minister, were in agreement that there is a broad consensus required from the whole industry, which will then be presented to the ministry once it is ready. Deliberations are on amongst all the players. The group also discussed single window clearances for production and a few other issues,” he said.