Скачать или смотреть “Regulating the OTT Platforms to Prevent the Promotion of Tobacco/Nicotine Use” Inaugural session

Dr. Rakesh Gupta-President SIPHER and Dr Deeopinder Singh-Hosts
Dr. Jagdish Kaur, Regional Adviser (TFI) · World Health Organization
Mr. Cyril Alexander- State Convener at Tamilnadu People’s Forum for Tobacco Control (TNPFTC)
Dr. L Swasticharan Addl. DDG MOHFW
Dr Rana J Singh The Union
Mr Anurag Kundu CP D CPCR
Mrs. Harjinder Kaur CCPCR.



1. Tobacco advertising has seen a rapid surge in recent years attributed to the introduction of OTT platforms which has seen expeditious growth in India. Unfortunately, there has been extensive advertising and glamorization of tobacco use in OTT exposing the younger generation to tobacco brands and products
2. OTT platforms have been portraying excessive use of tobacco consumption among characters in films and series streaming on these platforms which have played a major role in influencing and promoting tobacco use among children and youth in our country, as a result, it is likely to set the country back on the hard-won achievements of anti-tobacco efforts that our country has strived for. Also, the drop in smoking numbers will pick up again
3. The COTPA Section 5 (1) states, ‘no person shall take part in any advertisement which directly or indirectly suggests or promotes the use or consumption of cigarettes or any other tobacco products’.
4. In 2005, the MoHFW issued regulations prohibiting tobacco appearances in movies and TV programs. The film industry’s opposition weakened the rules and delayed their implementation until 2012.
5. The extant Rules require cinema theater owners and broadcasters of television programs to display anti-tobacco static warning messages, anti-tobacco health spots, and audio-visual disclaimers about the ill effects of tobacco use in all films and television programs depicting tobacco products or their use and further bans the display of brands of tobacco products or any form of tobacco product placement. The Rules are fairly well implemented in Films screened in theaters and by cable or network television broadcasters, however, it is observed that the films/TV programs that are shown/streamed on OTT platforms.
6. It will likely set the country back on the hard-won achievements of anti-tobacco efforts that our country has strived for. Not only that, the drop in smoking numbers will pick up again.
7. Various studies conducted in India provide conclusive evidence that the streaming services or Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms) are completely disregarding India’s high standards for restricting and containing tobacco depictions in the media. It is even the case that movies with tobacco depictions that include the appropriate anti-tobacco disclaimers, spots, and messages when shown in cinemas or on cable networks, are made available on the streaming platforms without the anti-tobacco messages.
In this background, Strategic Institute for Public Health Education and Research (SIPHER) proposes to organize a Physical National Consultation on “The Need to Regulate OTT Platforms to Prevent Promotion of Tobacco/Nicotine Use” in New Delhi and intent to call High officials from all stakeholder ministries, Members of CSOs working for Tobacco Control and Faculty from Academic Medical institutes.