KOLKATA: To regulate or not to regulate online content, that's the question. If yes then what should be the way forward? There has been no industry consensus on it yet. While in the earlier part of this year, Hotstar, Jio, SonyLiv and Eros formed an adjudicatory body Digital Content Complaint Council (DCCC), other platforms like Netflix, Amazon, MX Player, ZEE5, AltBalaji and Arre opposed it. Arre co-founder and CEO Ajay Chacko is strongly against DCCC model of regulation and said that they are now proposing an ombudsman model to the government.

“We have not agreed to the DCCC model and are now proposing an ombudsman model to the government which is actually a midway path. I am hoping that works,” Chacko said in a webinar called ‘Future of OTT content and its evolution in India’ hosted by Indiantelevision.com.

He again strongly advocated that the internet is a medium of choice and people should be allowed to decide what they want to watch or don’t. He also added that if the authority wants to get parity in regulations of all mediums then it should not bring the newest medium to the lowest common denominator of the oldest medium. According to him, the problem is not with OTT platforms not being regualted but with the way cinema and TV have been over-regulated. 

Recently during FICCI e-Frames, ministry of information and broadcasting secretary Amit Khare said the ministry is proposing to bring content being streamed on over-the-top (OTT) platforms under its purview. Prior to that, I&B minister Prakash Javadekar gave streaming services 100 days to finalise a code of conduct.