A Delhi High Court judgement, pronounced on May 29 and uploaded again on July 8 (yesterday), has categorically stated that advertising on linear TV channels (available via Cable TV or DTH) will not exceed 12 minutes per clock hour. The capping was put by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and has been upheld by the High Court.
The court rejected the petitions filed by broadcasters which had questioned the regulation on constitutional grounds.
The batch of petitions filed by entertainment channels as well as news broadcasters had challenged the Rule 7(11) of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994 and Regulation 3 of the Standards of Quality of Service (Duration of Advertisements in Television Channels) Regulations, 2012, as amended in 2013. The News Broadcasters Association also challenged the regulations.
The court said the petitions principally did not challenge the 12-minute advertising ceiling itself, but TRAI’s diktat that the cap should be enforced on a ‘per clock hour’ basis. The regulations state that broadcasters are allowed to air a maximum of 10 minutes of commercial advertisements and two minutes of self-promotional content per clock hour.
The petitioners claimed that the regulation went against Articles 14 and 19(1)(a) of the Constitution by imposing unreasonable restrictions on their business operations and commercial interests. They argued that the regulation interferes with programming flexibility and restricts earning capacity through advertising.
News broadcasters, on their part, claimed that they were dependent on advertising for revenue as subscription revenues were already restricted under TRAI’s tariff framework. They further contended that Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution protects advertising as commercial speech.
The High Court, however, rejected the arguments, stating that TRAI had full authority to lay down quality-of-service standards, including putting caps on advertisement duration. The court bench stressed that the regulations were intended to check excessive commercial breaks and ensure an improved viewing experience.
The court also pointed out that while users could avoid advertisements in print media by choosing to skip pages, the same was not the case with scheduled TV programming.