Group of Filipino directors opposes MTRCB’s proposal to regulate streaming platforms

The streaming platforms, it said, already have their own classifications, content warnings, and parental controls that is why having “more state control” on them is not needed. (Pexels photo)

The Director’s Guild of the Philippines (DGPI) rejected the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board’s (MTRCB’s) bid to regulate streaming services including Netflix.

In a statement on Friday, September 4, the group stressed that adding regulation would only “discourage the acquisition of local content” that would “hurt the film industry at a time when it is struggling to survive.”

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The streaming platforms, it said, already have their own classifications, content warnings, and parental controls that is why having “more state control” on them is not needed.

“MTRCB is expected to be an enabling partner of the industry towards authentic self-regulation,” the DGPI said.

“We heed our good Senators: let us encourage the growth of the local film industry and the viewing public by preserving freedom of expression and self-regulation. In an era where choices are expanded, let us not contract ours,” it added.

Some netizens and lawmakers, including Senator Grace Poe and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, thumbed down the plan of the MTRCB, the agency mandated to regulate and classify motion pictures and television programs, among others, in the Philippines.

Drilon said that it is “very impractical” for the MTRCB to regulate the streaming sites as Netflix alone already has thousands of shows.

“If they insist on it, then taxpayers will be paying MTRCB only to stream movies and shows 24/7, 365 days,” he said.

Poe, who was the MTRCB’s former chair, meanwhile said that the agency does not have “enough manpower or even resources” to do their proposal, which she branded as “counterproductive and ridiculous.

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Talking with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo, MTRCB chair Rachel Arenas defended their proposed regulation, saying it would not curtail viewer’s freedom, instead, it would “empower” them. She added that the MTRCB just wants to ensure that the contents of the online streaming services are in compliance with “Filipino contemporary values.”