World No Tobacco Day: Anti-Tobacco Warnings Must on OTT Shows

On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, the central government has issued a new set of rules mandating over-the-top (OTT) platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hotstar among others, to display anti-tobacco warnings for at least 30 seconds at the beginning and middle of the programme.

The rules are called ‘Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Amendment Rules, 2023’.

According to the notification issued by the Health Ministry, the new rules for OTT platforms include the following:

• Display anti-tobacco health warning as a prominent static message at the bottom of the screen during the period of display of the tobacco products or their use in the programme

• Display an audio-visual disclaimer on the ill-effects of tobacco use, of minimum twenty seconds duration each, in the beginning and middle of the programme

Notably, the contents shown in television channels and theatres already display anti-tobacco health spot, however, it was not mandated for digital platforms.

In the absence of these rules, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare held deliberations with the stakeholders for them to display the anti-tobacco warnings.

It may be mentioned that World No Tobacco Day is observed on May 31 every year to raise awareness among the public on the harmful and deadly effects of consuming tobacco.

World No Tobacco Day was created by the Member States of the World Health organization in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and the preventable death and disease it causes.

In the year 1988, resolution WHA42.19 was passed calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day on May 31 every year.

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