The global OTT industry is booming, but with worldwide reach comes complex compliance challenges. From age restrictions and geo-blocking to data privacy and cultural sensitivities, platforms must navigate diverse regulations. Muvi’s TrueComply simplifies this with AI-driven, automated video compliance checks. Continue reading
The global OTT audience is growing at lightning speed. Today, thanks to multilingual translational content delivery, streaming services are reaching every corner of the world, and people are gaining access to international content like never before. The greatest part of the OTT industry today, for the various stakeholders, is that with the right content distribution and production strategies, they can simply reach all over the world. A regional show like Money Heist now has the power to become the most-streamed show in the world.While this gives power to the distributors, it also adds a major challenge, which is video compliance.
Now every country has its own set of rules and regulations when it comes to what its citizens can watch. For platforms, failing to meet these requirements can result in takedowns, penalties, or even loss of market access. This is the reason why compliance is not just a legal requirement but a business necessity. In this blog, we will talk about how OTT giants solve the compliance issues and provide you with solutions that can help you stay compliant across all areas where you operate.
Video compliance, in simple words, simply means the careful implementation of laws and content guidelines issued by regions. It involves thorough checks to ensure the content does not violate any cultural sensitivities in the regions where the content is distributed.
Compliance covers a fairly broad range of elements, which are often tested and verified while determining the compliance status of a particular content. Some of the video compliance parameters are as follows:
Depending on the local laws and regulations, content can have restrictions for specific age groups like 7+, 13+, 18+, and more. This restriction likely depends on the extent of nudity, violence, hate speech, use of language, etc. Assigning age-based ratings like G, PG-13, R in the U.S., or U/A, A in India becomes a necessity.
Based on the type of content, there can be restrictions. For example, a country may not allow depiction of drug use or religiously sensitive material, or politically sensitive narratives. Video compliance ensures the right content flows and laws are followed.
Certain titles are banned in regions as per their internal laws. For example, a show that is available in the US might not be allowed to stream in the UAE. Video compliance teams work around the clock to ensure that rules are followed and geo block is effectively applied..
Adhering to data privacy laws such as GDPR (Europe), COPPA (U.S.), and new data privacy laws like India’s DPDP Act 2023 is also necessary to stream content and, therefore, becomes an integral part of compliance.
In short, compliance ensures that OTT platforms operate legally, ethically, and responsibly across all geographies. Video compliance is the gateway to doing a profitable OTT streaming business across global markets.
Let’s take an example of an imaginary show released by your most popular OTT platform in the United States. The show is good and becomes immensely popular in the region to the extent that the platform owners decide to release that content in Asia. However, humour and references change with region. What is allowed in Europe might be disrespectful in Japan. What happens next is that the title is taken down, the platform faces a lawsuit, and the negative press does permanent damage to the reputation of the organization.
While the example is hypothetical, the reality is very similar to it and has happened quite a few times.
For example, Netflix had to remove an episode of The Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj in Saudi Arabia due to government objections. Several Indian OTT platforms have faced court cases over hurting religious sentiments.
At the end of the day, this is not just about court cases. It’s about losing a lot of money and a critical reputation in the region. This is the reason why video compliance is extremely crucial for OTT platforms that are targeting multi-region content distribution.
Now that you know what video compliance is, let us understand why video compliance is crucial for business.
Laws are complex, and a single mistake can land you in months of unnecessary legal trouble. Not just that, the legal trouble also implies that the content gets taken down, fines are incurred, and what can presumably be a great decision can backfire instantly. This can lead to huge financial losses.
While not following right compliance can lead to lawsuits, being compliant ensures that you can unlock new geographies without the fear of restrictions and takedowns. It helps you modify popular content and distribute it to regions where it has the possibility of becoming popular. The more viewers equals the more profits.
Parents and families are often concerned about what their children are watching. Ensuring great compliance increases the trust scores of your OTT platform, building better relationships with the customer. People want to watch content, but they can do so only when it is compliant with the regional laws and regulations. If your platform can cross this gateway of compliance, you gain the trust of people.
Without compliance, OTT growth strategies can collapse quickly in new markets.
The next question that might come to your mind is how complex these laws are and how different they are across regions. Well, we will admit that compliance is truly challenging when taken in terms of the fragmented global regulatory landscape. Imagine this: every country has more or less its own set of laws, priorities, cultural sensitivities, religious beliefs, and restrictions, and whatnot. So you can imagine how difficult it is to deliver OTT content globally. Here is a quick brief of some of the compliance laws pertaining to video in some countries.
Governed by the IT Rules 2021, India requires platform owners to self-classify content based on age-based restrictions. It also requires disclaimers, content descriptors, and the appointment of a grievance redressal officer to handle any user complaints received.
The US requires compliance with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) for kids’ content and FCC regulations for broadcasting. It has its own separate MPAA rating system for films.
European countries mandate strict GDPR compliance for user data management. They have a localised rating system for different EU countries. There is also an Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) for online platforms.
Content bans around nudity, LGBTQ+ representation, or politically sensitive material, and heavy reliance on geo-blocking and edited versions of shows/movies. China perhaps has the strictest compliance frameworks requiring mandatory government approval for content before release.
We must learn from the greats, and when it comes to global OTT players like Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video, compliance is not optional. It’s a part of the process and an operational backbone. These platforms stream thousands of hours of content across hundreds of regions, each governed by unique cultural sensitivities, censorship laws, and data regulations. To manage this, they’ve developed multi-layered compliance infrastructures that blend advanced technology with human oversight. Let’s have a look at some of the aspects of the multi-layered compliance structure of these platforms.
Technology is the first line of defence for these platforms. Using AI, these platforms scan and identify content that has nudity, extreme violence, or any explicit imagery before its release. They also do speech-to-text processing and then run through these texts to identify any flagged keywords indicating profanity, hate speech, etc. Even subtitles are screened to ensure translations don’t carry unintended cultural slurs or misinterpretations.
This filters a large portion of non-compliant content for the rest of the next steps.
AI alone cannot understand cultural nuance. That’s why giants invest heavily in human moderation.
The human layer of moderation goes beyond binary and ensures the human touch on every compliance process demand.
Given that there are so many laws and they have to be followed to do business, you cannot have a one-size-fits-all strategy. Hence, OTT giants make multiple content versions that include regional cuts. Scenes are edited or removed to adhere to the pertinent laws of the land. For example, violence is often toned down for Southeast Asia, and themes such as LGBTQ+ are often cut in sensitive markets.
If edits aren’t feasible, titles are restricted altogether. A film available in the U.S. might be invisible to users in Saudi Arabia or China. These measures help OTTs maintain global reach without breaching local laws.
Beyond content, OTT compliance extends into data privacy and user rights.
This ensures both content safety and operational legality.
While these processes work for billion-dollar players, they’re resource-heavy and expensive. Setting up global moderation teams costs millions. Maintaining region-specific legal experts is unsustainable. Constant AI development requires deep R&D budgets. This is exactly where automation-driven compliance solutions come in.
Trucomly is a comprehensive video compliance management solution that is designed specifically for OTT players who are looking for an AI-based content flagging and identification solution for all their checking, validating, and video compliance processing needs. TrueComply is an innovative AI-based solution that makes your videos compliance-ready in just 1 click! Poised as the industry’s first AI video compliance manager, TrueComply is capable of managing the compliance status of hundreds of videos, all from a single dashboard.
Going way beyond just moderation, it allows you to have a frame-by-frame check for every element of the video. This helps detect violations, risks, and sensitive materials, and most importantly, ensures the content is in accordance with the latest guidelines of global government authorities.
What makes TrueComply stand out is its multi-layered compliance intelligence. Unlike traditional tools that only flag content, TrueComply not only identifies problematic sections but also empowers users to take corrective actions instantly. TrueComply enables precise and targeted editing, successfully applying caution labels, applying language-specific tags, and more, all at a very large scale.
TrueComply automatically scans each video while it is being uploaded. It analyses every frame to detect objects, visuals, or audio elements that may breach any compliance standard. All this is done in real-time, and a detailed analysis of each of these is provided.
TrueComply flags content issues and posts that an admin can simply verify and approve necessary corrections instantly at the click of a button. These changes can include adding video labels such as warnings, muting certain words, blurring scenes etc.
Edits are no longer manual but conversational. If you input a prompt or describe what you require TrueComply to do such as identifying certain words, it will instantly start its analysis and push results.
If your platform involves a lot of user generated content, TrueComply allows you to set a certain set of rules within your CMS. This way, all the videos uploaded get scanned, reviewed and approved automatically based on the compliance laws that you set in before.
As you can see here, TrueComply is not just an AI-based flagging system; it is an integrated solution that is designed to make video compliance a little easier for the various stakeholders of the OTT business.
TrueComply is not a standalone solution. It does not claim to solve all the compliance issues that you might have. However, it gives a helping hand to it by allowing you to take bulk actions on your pieces of content, all from a single CMS.
With its advanced automation and intelligent features, TrueComply delivers a wide range of benefits that empower businesses to streamline compliance, save costs, and confidently deliver content globally.
Video compliance has become a defining factor in the digital age, influencing not just legal adherence but also audience trust and brand credibility. As organizations scale, compliance becomes more and more crucial for business. Here are a few reasons why you should opt for TrueCompy to assist your global video compliance needs.
The OTT industry has unlocked immense opportunities, but with global reach comes global responsibility. In the future, video compliance will become even more complicated and incredibly detail-oriented. With the rise of AI-generated content, identifying what is original will be a tedious task.
TrueComply is an AI-driven solution with a human touch. While OTT giants can afford massive compliance infrastructures, most platforms need a smarter, more cost-effective solution. That’s where TrueComply by Muvi steps in.
With its automated compliance checks, centralized dashboard, and multi-country readiness, TrueComply empowers OTT platforms to stay compliant, reduce risks, and expand globally with confidence.
Video compliance, in simple words, simply means the careful implementation of laws and content guidelines issued by regions. It involves thorough checks to ensure the content does not violate any cultural sensitivities in the regions where the content is distributed.
Trucomly is a comprehensive video compliance management solution that is designed specifically for OTT players who are looking for an AI-based content flagging and identification solution for all their checking, validating, and video compliance processing needs. TrueComply is an innovative AI-based solution that makes your videos compliance-ready in just 1 click! Poised as the industry’s first AI video compliance manager, TrueComply is capable of managing the compliance status of hundreds of videos, all from a single dashboard.
Written by: Shivashish
Shivashish works as a content writer at Muvi. He has worked in domains like e-commerce, employee engagement, sports and entertainment. A poet by heart, Shivashish believes in creating quality content that is rich in information and easy to understand.
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