Tune Changed – Why Arnab Goswami hates Anurag Thakur & Ashwini Vaishnaw's ministries 

New Delhi: At a forum organised by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India last week, Republic Media Network Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami cribbed about OTT platforms not carrying news channels but showing ‘pornographic’ content.

Goswami said this in an apparent reference to the OTT platforms – Disney+ Hotstar and SonyLIV, who removed all live feeds of news channels and news content from July last year.

The foreign entities owned platforms took this step following the FDI cap in online news and new IT Rules. 

The FDI limit introduced by the government for “digital media” is 24%. Since there is no clarity on what constitutes digital media and since they didn’t want to fall foul of the ambiguous term, the foreign-owned OTT players decided not to carry news channels on their respective platforms.  

Industry observers said that either Arnab Goswami and his advisors are unaware of this FDI limit and the related definition of “digital media”, or they wanted to use the TRAI forum to make their dislike for Anurag Thakur’s I&B Ministry and Ashwini Vaishnaw’s Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology known. 

“As a senior broadcast professional he should know that TRAI doesn’t handle content and his charge against OTT of running pornographic content at the forum makes no sense,” a TRAI official said. 

Meanwhile, the Indian OTT platform Zee5 is understood to have disbanded its news team and is expected to do away with news channels once it is legally owned by Sony Pictures Networks.

While complaining about big broadcasters in his trademark style, Goswami did not care about the fact that the content of OTT platforms is monitored and regulated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and they are bound to follow the guidelines laid down by the ministry in the new IT rules.

The new IT rules have made it necessary for OTTs to rate every piece of content they are streaming on their platforms.

TRAI officials, broadcasters and telecom service providers present in the meeting were shocked by Goswami’s choice of the word ‘pornographic’ to describe the content being showcased on OTT platforms.

A broadcast veteran told NewsDrum that it was totally wrong to use such terms on a forum like TRAI. “He clearly understands the difference between adult and pornographic content. Still, he used the latter to sensationalise it in his true style. He is losing his mind and relevance. No one in the industry and the ministry takes him seriously anymore.”

“Moreover, this is clearly a case of undermining the government and regulator by saying OTT players are showing pornographic content under their watch,” the broadcast veteran added.

Upon being asked about the attack on big broadcasters for removing news content from their platforms, a senior executive at one of the top OTT platforms said that nobody has stopped the news broadcasters from launching their own services. “We worked like an aggregator of news, but the new rules make it difficult for us to run like an aggregator,” he said.

“Was his complaint about the ministry and its new IT rules? Did he mean that the new IT rules should be changed? Then he should have directly attacked them instead of making such loose remarks, which has resulted in his credibility touching a new low,” a senior executive at a broadcaster-owned OTT platform said.

Goswami’s defiance of Law 

In the past, Goswami has had several run-ins with the law. 

In 2020, he was named in the Mumbai Police FIR for manipulating the viewership of his news channels by tampering set-up boxes. 

Before that Goswami had used the illegal dual LCN tactic to garner a wider viewership for his channel Republic at the time of its launch in 2017. 

Several news reports also indicate that he was illegally broadcasting his Republic Bangla channel on DD Freedish. 

Industry observers also find it strange why Goswami always gets a free pass from the central government when he has broken the law so many times, and are also curious to see what the outcome will be now as he has trained his guns at two top ministers.