OTT players given deadline
THE BROADCASTING committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has given the likes of Google and YouTube 30 days to declare themselves over-the-top (OTT) operators – or face the risk of hindered business operations in the country.
The OTT policy steering subcommittee of the broadcasting committee had called on companies deemed to be OTT operators, including the OTT network platform operators and OTT content providers, to notify it yesterday of their status as OTT operators. Google and YouTube are the biggest names in a list of operators that failed to declare their status yesterday at a gathering of OTT players convened at the NBTC. All operators in this camp were handed a deadline of July 22 for compliance.
OTT describes the delivery of media content to viewers, such as films and TV programmes, via the Internet.
Around 24 broadcasters, including some terrestrial digital TV operators, and 11 OTT operators showed up at the meeting. Some of them reportedly made their notifications yesterday, while some advised of their intention to notify.
Once a broadcaster or operator formally notifies the NBTC that it provides OTT services, it will immediately obtain all the required permits for such services .
Aside from Google and YouTube, which is a content-sharing service owned by the US search giant, Netflix also failed to make the OTT notification to the NBTC yesterday. The company, which provides films and TV shows online, informed the broadcasting committee that it will meet with the committee on the matter early next month.
The broadcasting committee’s chairman Natee Sukonrat said yesterday that if the operators with outstanding notifications failed to respond within the 30-day deadline, they would be deemed to be operating outside the Thai legal system. If they operated on this basis, such operators could continue to provide services but “their businesses here might face difficulty", he added, while declining to elaborate.
He also conveyed to this point to representatives of the US-Asean Business Council who visited the broadcasting committee yesterday to learn more about its OTT rules.
Those operators that have made the OTT notification will be subject to the Broadcasting Act of 2008, with some exemptions granted to the standard broadcasting conditions. Under these exemptions, these operators are not required to seek an OTT licence. Among the companies that showed up yesterday were TrueVisions Anywhere, AIS Play, Doonee, Monomaxx, Line TV and Kapook.com.
The broadcasting committee has called in for a meeting next week the top 55 Thai content providers on YouTube, by subsriber numbers. Their notifications as OTT operators will also be sought.
