Liberty or Licence: The OTT conundrum
OTT Platforms are the binge-stores of this age. What do government regulations do to this? Are they necessary? Are we ready for this shift? Explore with MUNner's Daily!
“Creativity takes courage”
~Henri Matisse.
#opinion
In an age where content less lame movies are pumped into theatres, there arose a sole contender; a champion of the masses―OTT(Over-the-top) Media Service.
OTT is a streaming service that provides customers(viewers) with data(movies, series and shows) via the internet. This service is delivered ‘Over-the-top’ of another platform: hence the moniker.
It has now bypassed the conventional and conformist methods of content distribution such as Cable TV, Broadcast and Satellite TV.
Unlike Voice OTT(Skype, WhatsApp, JioMeet, Zoom, etc.), the most concerning and fought over media distributer is Video OTT–which we will discuss later. Here is a list of popular Video OTT platforms in India.
There are a lot of film industries and film cities in India; all differentiated by regional languages. Most of them are referred to in this article.
Why everyone shifted to OTT(Video)?
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
~T.S. Eliot
The simple reason is―because of Corona-pandemic. But it doesn’t justify the depth of the problems that existed. So, I will try to elaborate a little bit more.
The Video content industry was stifled with mediocre content all-throughout the year–all in fear of revenue and brand-image loss. OTT platforms opened an opportunity for unfamiliar faces and modern concepts to be produced and exhibited. It was also a time when Data-boom was catching onto the market. The market and consumers were primed for the spike in content consumption–all from the comforts of their devices(sometimes multiple devices) from any location. The pandemic only forced the orthodox theatre-watchers into the OTT-platform premiers. Thus new habits were moulded into the populi.
The untainted and bold notions of the modern arts shook the old forests of Orthodox-Bollywood―the pride and recognition of our nation.
How is OTT today?
The creators are always adventurers and they always try to explore uninhibited story-concepts. And while doing so, they almost-certainly open the Pandora’s box of Sex and Nudity. Despite the communal civility that Indians convey, vulgarity always eclipses and sells in the market beyond gender biases. Not to belittle the culture-appropriation and political propaganda brazenly vomited.
And some platforms decry this global conservatism by producing articles like the one mentioned below(content attached for educational purposes only).
All through this, the GoI(Government of India)–on 9 Nov 2020–had issued a gazetted notification(click here to download pdf), bringing OTT platforms under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; thereby bringing in licencing of contents. This reiterates the GoI stance on regulation and ban of porn since 2015. Read the article below to know more about the same.
As of the situation before this notification, the OTT platform was not regulated nor licence was given by government institutions. It was majorly self-regulated.
To know more about this period’s circumstances, read this article.
The Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)led the self-regulation drives. This was not an easy path for the not-for-profit industry body, but most platforms did self-censor and rate the films for the audience-consumption―a major distinction from the theatre-based Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which is a statutory government body under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting(MIB). Other government bodies of e-media regulation are Ministry of Electronics & Information (MeitY) and Digital Content Complaint Council(DCCC), of which OTT platforms refused to concede to DCCC.
CBFC(infamously known as Censor Board) ratings are:
◆अ|U: Unrestricted Public Exhibition
◆अ/व|U/A: Unrestricted Public Exhibition — but with a word of caution that discretion required for children below 12 years
◆व|A: Restricted to adults
◆S: Restricted to any special class of persons
After the gazette notification which whoops Presidential powers, all online visual-audio content will be tuned by the above-mentioned government departments including the Indian Broadcasting Foundation(IBF) as per the applicable rules.
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
~Søren Kierkegaard
The clash between the censorship of “ill-willed” scenes and “unintentional indecency” are well described by CBFC curtailing the duration of kissing scenes and Netflix snivelling no foul-play and stating their movie ‘Cuties’ as a social-commentary; these are the two respective extreme realities that we are living in.
A benevolent government turning authoritarian and a self-regulating company not confessing their wrongs. Something more peculiar to understand is that the movie ‘Cuties’ is poised to be an Oscar contender.
“Drama is when the audience and not the actors cried”
~Frank Capra
It is not that OTT platforms do not self-regulate enough. But that, something made out of hard-work is always dear to the director and crew. Yet, offensive/miffed communication conveyed through visual-media―which is the strongest form of conveying messages―can leave irreversible and long-lasting effects in the form of riots and destructions.
Thus responsibility is key to the lock opening to liberty(and not freedom). What citizen should have is liberty ‘with responsibilities’ and not freedom ‘without responsibilities’. Along with responsibility therein lies the decision-making powers. The Indian government has been dubiously forbearing on OTT for quite a lot of time, only to reprimand hardly, and then abruptly force down its dominance of regulatory-powers upon them through licencing. It is of empirical significance that both the Government and Platforms make optimal decisions for maintaining fraternity and value-imbibement among the citizenry.
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”
~Mahatma Gandhi
Politics and Business of OTT
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.”
~Bertrand Russell
It is not a hidden matter that the film industry is in conflict with politicians. It's rifled with Political movements, sloganeering and advertising too. Some actors are just trying to live their life embroiled in solace/fights and others aspiring/engaged to becoming/are politicians themselves
The OTT market is estimated to grow to USD 5B by 2023, as per the latest report by The Boston Consulting Group titled ‘Entertainment Goes Online’. All in between, drug cases are being registered by the Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) which has shaken the beliefs and mien of the respected and allured industry. The NCB had started a probe on drug cases against Bollywood after the death of a fan-favourite actor Mr Sushant Singh Rajput.
This is the latest arrest that has been made.
The reality of this case has been well-described by actor-producer Mr Akshay Kumar:
“I’ll be a liar if I say that this problem does not exist in our industry. It exists, just like every industry. But every person in every profession is not involved in such problems. This is impossible.”
Yet, there is hostility among fans of cinema towards the actors(who perform both in OTT and Theatre-films) for betraying their fan-expectations and envy the power that film-artists hold to avoid the clutches of NCB, that normal citizen doesn’t have.
The behaviourism of news organizations(in OTT platforms) in this case, as well as many others, have also been in contention and review of government; as a case to be regulated, restricted and propagation/agenda deprivation.
The 2018 #MeToo international movement, had spread fires raging throughout Indian film industry too. In the short term, many predators were found to be lurking around as sheep hiding behind the allure and glitter of the screens. Although later, the Indian manifestation of the movement quickly died out by the frivolous and libellous registration of abuses without any evidences. This was partly true for the global #MeToo movement too.
Other recent movements of impact are the recent inclusion of race and gender as categories for OSCAR, innovation in animation, VFX & CGI and multilateral language recognition.
USA(United States of America) has also tried to approach regulations via another route: the taxation of GAFA. GAFA stands for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon–also known as Big Tech. This taxation seeks to level the playing field for local companies. These companies now face Senate Hearings on Anti-Trust laws, but the taxation-bills are yet to be formulated. It is rumoured to be replicated in India too.
The most talked-about form of OTT regularization is by the market. Let the consumer decide what he/she wants to watch. But as mentioned in the beginning… the public actually does not refrain from propaganda-laden, controversial and profane content. This will mostly create rifts among the delicate societal structures already tested to its brim by various polarizing political movements throughout the globe.
Other nations on OTT
Here, we list some commonly known government-controlled, OTT regulators:
◆Singapore has the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), which started regulation from 1 March 2018.
◆Australia has Broadcasting Services Act(1992), of which the amendment on 1 January 2000 had section 5 and section 7 read together to regulate all online content inside and outside the Australian mainland.
◆The UK doesn’t yet have a law. The BBC and Netflix jointly review all online shows. The BBC later, in 2016 and 2018, released a ‘White Paper’ reiterating the need for OTT regulation.
◆Turkey has state-run, Radio and Television Supreme Council, also known in short as RTÜK.
◆Indonesia has Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (Indonesian: Komisi Penyiaran Indonesia, abbreviated as KPI(2002)) is an independent broadcasting agency. It was amended in August 2019, to include OTT.
◆Kenya has Kenya Film Classification Board Commission(KFCB)―formed in 1963―that has outright banned Netflix and similar platforms. Now the board is looking forward towards regulation and laws to start accommodating to digital media.
◆Saudi Arabia has Anti Cyber Crime Law(ACCL)―formed in 2007―that over-cover all platforms including OTT.
OTT(Voice)
These services are yet to be regulated. But most probably they will only be required to protect data of users from eavesdropping and quarrelsome countries. Many countries have negative sentiments towards this country.
Especially after the ‘Zoom’ data-sharing debacle, countries have grown wary of data security and is vying for data-localization.
The music industry has the following OTT platforms.
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”
~Thomas Merton
Conclusion
I hope the OTT platforms and respective governments in the world can come to a table to deliberate on the issue and reach a compromise. This is the only palatable and democratic path to reach an acceptable conclusion.
References
1.Vidooly
2.NativePlanet
3.bookmyshow
4.Yourstory
5.National Informatics Centre(NIC)
6.IndianExpress
7.TheSun
8.CinemaBlend
9.NDTV
10.SwarajyaMagazine
11.Music diffusion
Disclaimer: We are a platform which allows all views to be represented without bias or discrimination. This piece is not to be judged upon as the final stance of MUNner’s daily or MEC MUN Society.
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