In a move that may completely upset the business plans of pay television broadcasters whose 72% revenue comes from advertisements, the sector regulator has proposed a 50% cut in airtime of ads. The regulator also wants to limit the frequency of television advertisements on television to four breaks for general channels, three breaks for movie channels, and one break for sports channels and strict norms for running scroll ads for news broadcasters among other measures.
?No free-to-air channel should carry ads exceeding 12 minutes in an hour. For pay channels, this limit should be six minutes. The 12 minutes of ads should not be in more than four sessions in one hour, Trai said in its latest consultation paper. Trai has floated this paper suo moto to safeguard the interest of all stakeholders. Trai wants all comments and views to be submitted by 27 March and counter-comments by 2 April.
According to several broadcasters, such a move by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) exceeds its own mandate, which is to regulate the broadcasting industry on tariffs and other parameters but not on how the business is conducted. “We will respond to Trai but prima facie it appears that Trai has exceeded its mandate,” said a top executive of a leading television channel. “We are following the programme and content code given by the government. Also, we have the freedom and right to do business, which will get infringed if such proposals are implemented in our country which lags behind developed countries in cable infrastructure,” the person quoted above said.
Trai wants a clock-hour basis for fixing the duration of ads on television. Which means, the regulator wants 12 minute of ads per 60 minutes of programming. Currently, a number of broadcaster average out their respective 12-minutes of ads based on 24-hours of programming. Effectively, the prime time (7pm-11pm) is currently witnessing an average of 35% ads, Trai said. Trai has proposed that no free-to-air channel should carry ads exceeding 12 minutes in an hour. For pay channels, this limit should be six minutes. The 12 minutes of ads should not be in more than four sessions in one hour, Trai said.
“Not more than three ad breaks should be allowed during telecast of a movie with the minimum gap of 30 minutes between consecutive ad breaks,” it said. In case of sporting events being telecast live, the regulator said the ads should only be carried during the interruptions in the sporting action ? for example, half time in football or hockey match, lunch/ drinks break in cricket matches, game/set change in case of lawn tennis, etc. Trai also wants only full screen ads. In its view, part screen ads should not be permitted. Drop down ads should also not be permitted. Trai said the news and current affairs channels should be allowed to run not more than two scrolls at the bottom of the screen which should occupy not more than 10% of the screen space.