When the government earlier had said that Prasar Bharati would foray into the world of streaming, sceptics had swiped it aside. However, now it seems that the government is serious about the national broadcaster getting into the streaming business.

The pubcaster released a draft OTT Request for Proposal (RFP) document, outlining goals, features of the platform, vendor bidding processes, and additional specifications, Storyboard18.com reported yesterday.

(https://www.storyboard18.com/how-it-works/prasar-bharati-to-launch-ott-platform-releases-draft-tender-document-outlining-goals-and-specifications-15813.htm)

“Prasar Bharati intends to design, develop, commission, operate and maintain an Over The Top (OTT) platform for its content available and for the reach of all the citizens in India, even remotest village as well as global audience. The intended OTT platform is required to function in a lag and buffer free environment giving all set of users a state of the art and lag free viewing experience,” the draft RPF document said, according to the report.

The development was also reported by inc42.com. (https://inc42.com/buzz/prasar-bharati-wants-a-pie-of-indias-ott-market/)

The gist of the scope of work earmarked for this project shall be for development, commissioning, hosting, testing, operations, and maintenance of an OTT platform for Prasar Bharati.

The feature requirements in the RPF document widely say that the platform intends to have plans for subscription that would be offered to individual users as well as family users (subject to a maximum five profiles).

Content available on the platform as per the document should support radio streaming, standard definition (SD), high definition (HD) and ultra-high definition.

Meanwhile, reporting on the development, Medianama said that legal ambiguity in copyright laws and recent court decisions may complicate Prasar Bharati’s goal to provide OTT services, including a messaging app. (https://www.medianama.com/2023/10/223-prasar-bharati-ott-platform-livestreaming-messaging-services/

Quoting a 2017 Supreme Court judgement, the Medianama report said the top court had acknowledged the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) telecasting/ broadcasting rights when it came to the streaming of cricket matches. It further recognised Section 3 of the Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati) Act, 2007 that obliged entities to share live broadcasting signals of sporting events of “national importance” with India’s national broadcasting organisation.

The report went on to argue that, however, law firms had pointed out the term “national importance” was not defined by the Act. To address this, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, after consulting the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Prasar Bharati, issued a list of sporting events of “national importance.”

Quoting a TRAI consultation that seeks to regulate messaging and calling applications and selective banning of OTT services during periods of unrest/crisis that are likely to be used by terrorists/anti-national elements, Medianama asked: since Prasar Bharati’s platform primarily deals with broadcasting, but is also providing messaging services, which category will it finally land in?