The entertainment industry in Bangladesh is full of promise. With more than 160 million people and a fast-growing economy, it has one of the largest media markets in Asia. In 2020, the country had close to 50 television channels, 28 FM stations, more than a thousand newspapers and hundreds of online news portals. The sales of television sets and home entertainment systems are projected to increase steadily in the next five years. In 2022, the country experienced a measure of success in its film industry with the release of more than fifty movies. Blockbuster movies such as Hawa, Poran, and a few others brought audiences back to cinema halls. Also, an increasing number of film directors are gaining global recognition in recent years.
The opportunity of transformation
With increased accessibility to the internet, the entertainment industry has expanded to digital platforms. In 2022, Hootsuite reported that 31.5% of the population was internet users and 29.7% was social media users. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) estimated about 129 million active mobile and broadband internet connections. The Bangladesh National ICT Household Survey 2021 indicated that internet users were more likely to be urban dwellers between 15 to 34 years old with relatively higher education.
In this environment, several local OTT platforms have emerged over the last decade such as Binge, Bioscope, Chorki, Deepto Play, and iScreen. There were an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Bangladeshi subscribers to Netflix. In February 2022, the Business Post estimated the market size of video streaming platforms in the country to be BDT 300 billion per year with an annual growth of 20 percent. The shifts in media consumption patterns have brought about new production trends as well. The International Media Support (IMS) in 2021 mapped several innovative media initiatives in the country. These emerging models included individual-led community-based media start-ups, public interest media, non-profit independent journalism, issue-focused journalism, local and hyperlocal media, and subscription-based revenue approaches.
With these developments, it is no surprise that the A2I (Aspire to Innovate) program of the Prime Minister's Office reported in 2020 an optimistic future of jobs in Bangladesh, particularly in the entertainment sector. It recounted that one of the sectors that was resilient to the pandemic was the creative industry. While jobs in most other sectors shrunk, 20,000 new jobs were added to this occupational segment. For 2021, the report projected 90,000 new jobs in the said sector. The demand for creative workers is only expected to grow in the future.
Outlining concerns
Although the prospects of the entertainment industry are bright, many stakeholders have expressed concerns that certain regulations may affect the growth of the sector. On the one hand, the government should exercise its role to safeguard national and public interests. But, on the other hand, it needs to create an enabling environment that allows market players to feasibly operate, satisfy the entertainment needs of its citizens and ensure the advancement of the entire industry. Regulations need to be tailored, effective, and fit for purpose, else it can break the entertainment industry and all its promise to impact the social, cultural, and economic realms of the country.
Maintaining balance
Bangladesh needs to negotiate a balance in its regulatory approach in order to provide an enabling environment for the industry. One regulation that is of concern are the guidelines for over-the-top (OTT) media platforms drafted by the Bangladesh Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MOIB) and the BTRC. The draft regulations caused concern among certain quarters given its strongly framed rules regarding content relating to obscenity, defamation, religion, social harmony, foreign relations, and national security as well as the requirements to address complaints against content hosted in the said platforms.
Concerned stakeholders opine that these instructions are not in cadence with the best practices surrounding OTT platform in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere. In 2018, the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) enumerated a spectrum of OTT regulations in the Asia-Pacific region -- light touch policy, light touch by default, traditional broadcasting, and state control orientations. The light touch policy orientation, which several countries in the region have adopted, seeks industry cooperation via a self-regulatory framework in meeting basic content and decency standards.
There are also discussions around the issue of concerned regulation which may not be in the spirit of the country's constitutional guarantees, particularly Article 39 on freedom of thought, conscience, speech, and press. The rights that would be impacted include the freedom to hold opinions, and seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media. For example, a provision on traceability requirement where OTT platforms need to store information in order to ascertain content of users' messages compromises the guarantees of privacy and encryption, infringing upon privacy in private communications.
Towards a multi-stakeholder approach
For Bangladesh to develop a policy that ensures the growth of its entertainment industry, a multi-stakeholder approach is necessary wherein all stakeholders would get involved in the process. A multi-stakeholder approach is one of the best practices of governance that employs a variety of participants to partake in dialogue, decision-making and implementation of the responses to jointly conceived problems. In many ways, the draft regulations on OTT platforms will definitely affect several stakeholders and hence, it is best that everyone is given a chance to voice their concerns and make appropriate recommendations to the government. In the end, the country needs a regulation that is transparent, accountable, and predictable with clearly communicated desired outcomes.
Jude William Genilo, Sarkar Barbaq Quarmal and Muhammad Abdul Kader are from the Media Studies and Journalism Department, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh
