iWorld
India orders streaming giants to make content accessible for disabled viewers
NEW DELHI: India’s streaming platforms face a shake-up. The ministry of information and broadcasting has issued draft guidelines forcing OTT services to make their content accessible to people with hearing and visual impairments. The clock is ticking: platforms have six months to comply with the first phase, and two years to retrofit their entire libraries.
The regulations, published on 7th October, mark the government’s most aggressive push yet to enforce disability rights in the digital sphere. Every new release must carry at least one accessibility feature—closed captioning for the deaf, audio descriptions for the blind, or Indian Sign Language interpretation. No exceptions for Bollywood blockbusters or binge-worthy series.
The ministry is demanding 30 per cent of existing content be made accessible within a year, rising to 60 per cent after 18 months. The endgame? Full compliance across every title, from prestige dramas to reality shows, within 24 months. Platforms must also rewire their interfaces to work with assistive technologies and plaster accessibility indicators—(AD), (CC), (ISL)—on everything from trailers to thumbnails.
The rules stem from the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which the government has been nudging OTT platforms to follow since an advisory in April. India ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008, but enforcement has lagged. Now the ministry wants quarterly reports tracking progress, with a joint secretary-led committee poised to police compliance.
Live streams, podcasts and clips under ten minutes get a pass. But for everything else, the message is clear: subtitle it, describe it, sign it—or face scrutiny. The consultation period ends on 22 October.
For India’s 26.8m disabled citizens—and the streamers courting them—the game just changed.
iWorld
Tips Music CEO Hari Nair to step down
Girish Taurani and Sushant Dalmia to jointly steer the company as the hunt for a new chief begins
MUMBAI: A leadership shuffle is under way at Tips Music. Hari Nair, the company’s chief executive, will step down on April 30 as the music label begins the search for a successor.
The company said Girish Taurani, executive director, and Sushant Dalmia, chief financial officer, will jointly oversee operations during the transition while the board identifies a permanent replacement.
Nair joined Tips Music in 2023 and set about reshaping the veteran music label into a more digital, data-led enterprise. During his tenure, the company secured licensing and partnership deals with global platforms including Sony Music Publishing and TikTok, while renewing agreements with Warner Music Group.
Drawing on earlier experience in technology and entertainment, including a stint at ByteDance, Nair pushed the organisation towards a performance-driven culture. He built a brand partnerships division and introduced proprietary software systems aimed at strengthening digital distribution and data capabilities.
Kumar Taurani, chairman and managing director, credited Nair with embedding a data-led culture within the company and driving revenue growth in line with shareholder commitments.
In his resignation note, Nair said that after helping transition the label into a modern, digitally focused and process-driven organisation, the time had come to pursue his next leadership challenge.
The leadership change comes as the broader Tips Films group shows signs of financial stabilisation. In the third quarter of FY26 the company reported a net loss of Rs 2.86 crore, narrowing sharply from Rs 14.2 crore in the previous quarter. For the nine months ended December, losses stood at Rs 12.37 crore.
Yet revenue told a more volatile story. Income from operations slid to Rs 4 crore in Q3 FY26 from Rs 56 crore in the preceding quarter, taking total operating income to Rs 4.56 crore.
For a company built on a catalogue of more than 34,000 tracks and decades of Bollywood hits, the next chief will inherit both a digital engine and a volatile music market. The playlist may be familiar, but the next act at Tips Music is only just beginning.
