The board of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunica-tion Commission (NBTC) on Wednesday decided that its subcommittee on OTT would draft new rules on OTT within 30 days, NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said after the board’s meeting.

He said the NBTC would require registration for OTT providers again once the new rules come into effective.

With the annulment of the previous order by the NBTC’s broadcasting subcommittee, the July 22 deadline for OTT platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Netflix to register with the regulator no longer applies, according to Takorn.

The OTT rules are expected to become law in the next 90 days.

Following the NBTC’s working process – after the OTT sub-panel finishes drawing up the OTT rules within 30 days for the NBTC board’s consideration – it will put the draft up for public hearings, to be completed in 60 days. Then the NBTC board will convene to approve the final draft and have it published in the Royal Gazette.

OTT refers to the delivery of content, such as films and TV programmes over the Internet, either free or for a charge, bypassing traditional distribution.

The NBTC board resolution states that OTT operators must operate under Thai law, including the broadcasting law, which empowers the NBTC to regulate the broadcasting and telecom sectors. It is the NBTC’s duty to prescribe rules to regulate it.