OTT has bridged geographical barriers: Anurag Thakur

Kolkata: Union Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said OTT, which emerged as one of the biggest mediums during the COVID-19 time, has bridged the geographical barriers.

He said with the vanishing of boundary in OTT, the possibility of content from across the world being accepted by the pan-world audience has increased and cited the example of Korean content.

"Soft power doesn't have any boundary. The Covid-triggered lockdown had spurted the emergence of the OTT platform in a big way," he said at an awards programme here on Saturday night.

He said Bengal, the land of a visionary and poet like Rabindranath Tagore, a film icon like Satyajit Ray, a new direction giver filmmaker like Ritwik Ghatak, a new age singing sensation like Arijit Singh can win the hearts of OTT audiences in the world with new content in near future.

Thakur in this context harped on the issue of the need for any regulation on OTT content or not by the stakeholders.

"The content will be seen by family. On the issue of regulation I am keeping the query before you," he said.

The union minister also pointed out that the number of people having watched IPL matches on mobile phones in recent days far exceeded those having watched on TV.

"This reaffirms how the streaming contents are being more watched than other mediums like TV," he said.

About Indian content getting more recognition in the domain of entertainment, he said the 'Naatu Naatu' song and The Elephant Whisperers' documentary on OTT have both been toasted in the Academy Awards 2023.

Congratulating recipients in different awards categories, he said "It is a recognition of your contribution in the fields of art and entertainment." MD and CEO of TV9 Network Barun Das said in his speech "Art is the only man-made concept that unites people."