Over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Hotstar, SonyLiv, and others can now stream digital feed of TV news channels even if they have 100% foreign direct investment. The ministry of information and broadcasting said on Friday that such OTT platforms won’t be bound by the government’s FDI norms which caps foreign investment in news channels at 26%. This is because the news feed the OTT platforms choose to stream will come from news channels which are subject to FDI norms, hence there will not be any violation.
The I&B ministry said that 26% FDI limit for companies involved in uploading/streaming of news and current affairs through digital media had created confusion among OTT players whether the same was applicable to them or not, and whether they are free to air the content of news channels or not.
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“In the representations (by OTTs), it has been stated that OTT platforms only provide a platform for carriage of third party news and current affairs content of news channels on ‘as is basis’ without any editorial intervention, and further that OTT platforms are not involved in any aggregation/curation of the news and current affairs content provided by such channels, but are only hosting the news feed provided by such entities much similar to a DTH (direct-to-home) or cable service provider,” I&B said.
“It is accordingly clarified that when an OTT platform is hosting digital feed of a TV news channel granted permission under the extant uplinking & downlinking guidelines, only as a medium and makes it available to its subscribers/users, such a OTT platform is not covered under the 26% FDI rule,” it added.
The move was welcomed by the OTT players, especially those which are owned by foreign companies as they had to offload TV news channels from their platforms because of the government’s FDI limit.
“The word digital media was loosely defined and things were not clear whether we can host such news feed or not. So, in absence of clarification we had taken down the content of news channels,” an executive of an OTT app said, adding that the move is a welcome step.
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The removal of content of news channels by the OTTs was also coming at a loss to the broadcasters of such channels as their reach and advertisement revenue was affected, experts said.
In November 2020, the government had asked all the news websites, portals, and aggregators to comply with the 26% FDI rule.