Delhi HC upholds TRAI's 12-minute ad limit on TV
What's the story
The Delhi High Court has upheld the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) rule that limits TV advertisements to a maximum of 12 minutes per hour. A bench of Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Amit Mahajan dismissed petitions from several broadcasters challenging this regulation on Friday. The detailed order is yet to come. Under this rule, TV channels can air a maximum of 10 minutes of commercial advertisements and two minutes of promotional content every hour.
Background
Broadcasters argued rule could hurt revenues
TRAI introduced this rule in 2013 to curb excessive ad breaks on television. At that time, the Delhi High Court had granted interim relief to TV broadcasters. However, later that year, TRAI initiated action against several TV channels for violating the advertisement limit set by this regulation, as per CNBC TV. Broadcasters argued that the rule could hurt their revenues and claimed TRAI lacked the authority to regulate ad duration on TV channels.
Rule details
Regulations specify maximum ads per hour
The TRAI rule states, "No FTA (free-to-air) channel shall carry advertisements exceeding 12 minutes in a clock hour. For pay channels, this limit shall be 6 minutes." The regulations also specify that ads cannot be aired too frequently. Programs must run for at least 12 minutes before another ad break is taken. In movies, channels can take only three advertisement breaks with a minimum gap of 30 minutes between two consecutive breaks.
Sports regulations
Guidelines for ads during live sports events
The TRAI rule also lays down specific guidelines for airing ads during live sports events. Ads can only be shown during natural pauses in the game, such as half-time in football or hockey, lunch and drinks breaks in cricket, or during game and set breaks in tennis. FTA channels are allowed a maximum of four advertisement breaks per hour, while pay channels have no fixed limit on the number of ad breaks.