As soon as the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has authority over online content providers, the Indian government will begin regulating material on streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, Prime Video, and others. By the way, this covers a lot more outlets than just the ones listed above, including in-house streaming services.
President Ram Nath Kovind recently signed a new modification to the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules 1961, which led to this alteration. The following new items are brought within the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's jurisdiction by this amendment:
- Digital / Online Media
- Films and Audio-Visual programmes made available by online content providers.
- News and current affairs content on online platforms.
Online streaming services now coexist with cable TV, All India Radio, and Doordarshan thanks to this new legislation.
It's interesting to note that the government first suggested self-regulation for streaming services available online, but it seems that ideas did not turn out to be satisfactory to the ministries. I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar said in an interview two weeks earlier "I've given the streaming services two calls to discuss a reliable self-regulation strategy, but they haven't produced a proposal."
It seems that the government chose to place them under the I&B ministry since the streaming giants failed to submit a suitable proposal. It will be interesting to see how this influences the material that streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video release in the next years.