‘OTT Platform’ Now Comes Under Legal Radar; Registration And Permission Mandatory

Kathmandu, June 16: The government has officially brought the Over-the-Top (OTT) platform to the registration and regulation radar.

Amending the National Broadcasting Regulations, 2052 BS, the Ministry of Information and Communications has come up with the arrangement to legally regulate the OTT service providers being operated under digital broadcasting system.

According to the revised regulations published in the national gazette on Monday, both foreign and domestic OTT platforms providing services or broadcasting content within Nepal are now required to obtain permission.

With this arrangement in place, digital streaming services and OTT platforms that have been operating informally for years will come under a clear legal structure for the first time.

With the expansion of digital media, bringing platforms outside the traditional broadcasting system under the same regulatory framework has become necessary.

In this connection, Minister for Information and Communications Dr. Bikram Timilsina had initiated the policy measures to regulate OTT platforms.

The ministry made amendments to the regulations after internal groundwork to that end. It amended various schedules of the National Broadcasting Regulations 2052 to explicitly include OTT and digital broadcasting systems.

According to the revised provisions, details regarding ‘foreign OTT programmes being downlinked and OTT platforms’ have been made mandatory in Schedule–3 (a). It has made foreign OTT service providers or institutions distributing digital programs to get permission to broadcast within Nepal.

Previously, such OTT platforms had been in operation independently without being registered with any government authority. Content monitoring had become complicated owing to legal ambiguities, regulation, and tax collection.

The recent amendments have created a basis to bring OTT platforms under regulation and the legal framework, just like other broadcasting mediums, the ministry shared.

In addition, the revised regulations has also determined the licensing and fee structure for OTT and digital broadcasting services.

According to the new system, any foreign programme producer who downlinks and broadcasts their digital OTT programme produced in their country in Nepal is required to pay Rs 1 million per platform.

Similarly, Rs 2.5 million must be paid per OTT platform to distribute the signal of a foreign OTT digital program that has received downlink permission.

The rules noted that fee amounting to Rs 10 million has been set for operating an OTT broadcasting service.

For the broadcasting rights (franchise) of foreign programmes or approval for direct broadcasting of foreign programmes, a fee of Rs five lakh rupees has been set, while for operating an online radio, a license fee of 50 thousand rupees has been set.

With the rapid expansion of digital technology, the use of OTT platforms in Nepal has also been increasing significantly.

However, these service providers had been operating for a long time without a clear legal framework.

It has resulted in challenges such as regulation of such content, revenue, consumer rights protection, and unhealthy competition with the local broadcasting industry.

Since digital broadcasting services are becoming as important as traditional media, it is necessary to bring them under the state's legal framework.

After the new regulations are implemented, foreign and domestic OTT platforms operating in Nepal will now have to complete the registration process. It is expected to bring greater transparency to the digital content distribution system.