STREAMING GIANTS NETFLIX, Amazon and Disney on Friday privately discussed a possible legal challenge and other ways to stall the Union health ministry's new tobacco warning rules, amid fears they will need to edit millions of hours of existing web content, sources said.
The new rules are the latest headache for streaming giants in India, a top growth market. Companies often face legal cases and police complaints their content sometimes hurt religious sentiment, and many have self-censored content over the years.
The health ministry this week ordered streaming platforms should within three months insert static health warnings during smoking scenes. It also wants at least 50 seconds of anti-tobacco disclaimers, including an audio-visual, at the start and in the middle of each programme.
In first signs of industry distress, executives of the three global streaming companies, and India's Viacom18 which runs billionaire Mukesh Ambani's JioCinema, held a closed-door meeting, where Netflix said the rules would hit customer experience and push production houses to block their content in India, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
This story is from the June 03, 2023 edition of Financial Express Mumbai.
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This story is from the June 03, 2023 edition of Financial Express Mumbai.
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