Humayun Saeed said Netflix and Amazon consider Pakistan as part of India due to the same region and language similarities which leads to less recognization for the country by these international OTT Platforms.
Speaking to a session ‘Humayun Saeed Se Mulaqat’ during the ongoing 13th Aalmi Urdu Conference, the actor stressed the need to hold bilateral talks with Netflix and Amazon to tell them the content difference between India and Pakistan.
“What I have seen so far is that OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon consider Pakistan a part of India due to our same region and a lot of similarities in our languages. That is why they give contracts to India obviously due to their bigger market and India contact us if they need any of our contents, otherwise, we need to go through India for getting our content released on these platforms,” he said.
Read: People divided over ‘Pak version of Netflix’
“I think there is a need to tell these platforms the difference between the content of both countries. On my part, the government can definitely play their role in this issue by holding talks with Amazon and Netflix and tell them how our content is different from India,” he suggested.
Besides, Humayun pitched the idea of introducing Pakistan’s own OTT Platform where local artists, singers, producers, writers, technicians, and directors get a chance to work and deliver the best possible content.
“Due to COVID-19, our audience has moved towards digital content and their interest has been massive. I think we need to think about this and make our own OTT Platform as Cinemas in the country will be closed for maybe next five to six months. Meanwhile, we need to somewhere facilitate our films and dramas and the best medium is digital,” he reiterated.
“Government should come up with our own OTT platform to invest in local content and give them space worldwide. As currently, I see Indian content trending in Pakistan on Netflix which means our audience is active on OTT platforms and we can make the most of this opportunity,” he concluded.
It is pertinent to mention here that Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry had claimed that Pakistan was all set to launch its first-ever OTT Tv.
Taking to Twitter in October this year, Fawad had said his ministry completed the technology part of ‘Pak version of Netflix’ which will be launched once PEMRA sets the guideline to control the content on it.
“We at Ministry of Science and Technology are all set to launch Pakistan’s first OTT Tv (Pak version of Netflix). Technology part is complete, have asked PEMRA to prepare a guideline on content and we will be all set to launch in PPP mode, it’ll be just another humble contribution,” he wrote on the social site.
