Staff Reporter
This is apropos the stories published in certain newspapers on Draft Consultation on Regulating the Web TV & Over the Top TV (OTT) Content Services in Pakistan, PEMRA. In the news report it has been alleged that through the Draft Consultation on Regulating the Web TV & Over the Top TV (OTT) Content Services in Pakistan, PEMRA intends to curtail the freedom of speech and to gag voices. The allegation is totally denied. The objective for the consultation on regulating Web TV & Over the Top TV Content Services is elaborated in Section 1.2 of the Consultation Paper wherein it has been elaborated that the extensive growth of the web TV & OTT market and the excessive disruption of these services to traditional broadcast services have made regulators vigilant all over the world. Moreover, the broadcasters /TV operators and other traditional service providers are losing their market share to online web TV and content providers.
Notwithstanding, there are other regulatory issues also which necessitate it to bring under regulations the Web TV & OTT services. For example all PEMRA licensed broadcasters are subject to compliance with Code of Conduct-2015 which require the operators to have in-house time delaying mechanism & editorial control to filter out content which is not in compliance with the Code etc. However, the web TV and OTT players are not subject to any code of conduct & other PEMRA laws.
