Breaking : Websites & OTTs Now Under I&B Ministry

The Union Government of India has brought a revolutionary reform pertaining to online portals and content providers. The government has issued orders bringing online news portals – websites, content providers under the Information and Broadcasting ministry. The notification, signed by President Ram Nath Kovind, was issued on Monday.

With this, the online news portals would also be treated along with the traditional and conventional media houses – Print and Broadcast media. The same rules, regulations seem to be applicable to online news portals and content providers (OTTs such as Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon Prime) as well. However, more details regarding the same are awaited.

The development comes after a petition was filed last month in the Supreme Court for regulating OTT platforms by an autonomous body. The Apex court has sought the Centre’s response on it and served notices to the Centre, Ministry of I&B and Internet and Mobile Association of India. The Centre said that currently there was no law or autonomous body governing digital content. However, it now brought the OTTs and online portals under the I&B Ministry.