The Union Health Ministry on Saturday warned of action against online streaming platforms in case of non compliance to incorporate anti-tobacco warnings in their content under OTT Rules 2023.
The Ministry termed as “false, misleading and based on misrepresented facts” a media report that recently claimed that the Union Government has reached “an uneasy compromise” with OTT (over-the-top) streaming services on adding smoking warnings to their content.
“The report further claims that some platforms have chosen less intrusive warnings as a result of such an agreement.
“The media report is not factually correct and does not reflect the correct picture of the Union Government’s commitment towards improving public health as one of its priority duties,” the ministry said in a statement.
Considering public health as a priority issue, the government has extended the COTP (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products) film rules to OTT platforms also. The OTT Rules 2023 became operative from September 1, 2023.
Under these rules, now all OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney + Hotstar, Jio Cinema, Sony LIV, ALTBalaji, Voot, etc. Have to display anti-tobacco health spots, anti-tobacco health warnings as a prominent static message and audio-visual disclaimer on the ill-effects of tobacco use as prescribed in the rules.
