New Delhi: With television news channels voicing unhappiness at the 12-minute advertisement cap set to kick in from October 1, the government is planning to give the channels some more time, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said here yesterday.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event here, the minister said news channels are seeking more time as revenues from the digitisation process have yet to kick in. The October 1 limit could possibly be extended till December, he indicated.
The cable television digitisation process in India is in its third phase. The second phase which ended on March 31, saw 78 percent of households in 38 cities going digital from analogue systems. The first phase covered the metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
Tewari said the ministry was working very actively with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to get a “roadmap” for phasing the ad time slots from 20 minutes per clock hour to a cap of 12 minutes. “Subscriber revenues have not kicked in yet, we are in phase three of the digitisation process,” he said. He said news channels have one-tenth of the ad revenues as compared to general entertainment channels. “They want some more time till subscriber revenues kick in.”
TRAI had last year announced a 12-minute cap on ads, which has to be implemented by October 1. News channels have appealed against the ruling to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).
TRAI had notified the regulation in May last year after viewers complained about excessively long advertising breaks. The telecom regulator had besides capping the ad duration at 12 minutes per clock hour, also ruled that the minimum time gap between two consecutive ad breaks should not be less than 15 minutes. In the case of movies, the break should be a minimum of 30 minutes.
The cap was announced by TRAI as stipulated in the Cable TV Act 1995 and implemented as part of the Quality of Service (QoS) regulations. IANS
