Are We Attempting To Over-regulate OTTs?

The Nigerian Communications Commission defines Over-the-top (OTT) services as services "carried over the networks, delivering value to customers. These over-the-top services include services such as Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony, live streaming and other social media applications."Simply put, OTT is just a means of providing television and film content over the internet at the request and to meet the requirements of the individual consumer. The term itself implies that a content provider is going over the top of existing internet services.

World over, the broadcast industry has experienced a brisk shift in the way and manner content is delivered to our screens (mobiles/pcs/tablets/tvs) by broadcasters. Enabled by technology, the delivery of content through OTT services, particularly the subscription-based video on demand (such as Showmax, Envivo, Hulu, Disney ,Netflix, AppleTV, and Amazon Prime, to name a few) have become the rave of the day.