BTRC asked to finalise OTT regulation in 4 months

The High Court today directed BTRC to take necessary steps to finalise a regulation for operations of OTT (over-the-top) web-based platforms, collecting revenues from them and to submit its progress report in four months.

The bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Fatema Najib also set May 24 for passing further order on the matter.

During hearing a writ petition today, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission's (BTRC) lawyer Khandker Reza-E Raquib told the bench that his client has prepared the draft of a regulation relating to running OTT and collecting relevant revenues.

Also, BTRC wants to finalise the regulation after soliciting opinions from stakeholders and needs HC permission in this regard, he said.

The HC bench gave the permission and passed the order.

Writ petitioner Advocate Md Tanvir Ahmed moved the petition while Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy represented the state.

BTRC on January 18 last year submitted a report to the HC saying that it could not collect revenue from OTT-based platforms as there was no specific guideline to this effect.