10:41
The government on Friday removed the 12-minute non-programme content cap per hour for television channels, in a bid to foster competition, including with digital media channels.
In a notification, the ministry of information and broadcasting said the cap, introduced in 2006, had outlived its utility since the number of channels had increased from 62 then to more than 900 now.
'In India, the sector is heavily dependent on advertising, irrespective of whether a channel is 'pay' or 'free-to-air'. Furthermore, there was a non-level playing field for traditional TV channels vis-à-vis digital media, where no such stipulation on advertisement cap regulation exists,' the ministry said.
Introduced on August 14, 2006, the advertisement cap rule mandated that any TV channel could only have 12 minutes of non-programme content per hour.
This window was further sub-divided into 10+2, where only 10 minutes of advertisement and two minutes of self-promotion for the television channel was allowing.
In the change announced on Friday, the ministry said the situation has changed by a low and there exists now adequate competition in the market within the TV industry and between the TV industry and digital media.
Though TV channels had challenged the government’s rule in 2006, the Delhi high court had upheld the rule then, stating that there was 'no constitutional guarantee of profitability or unlimited monetisation of public resources'.
-- Aashish Aryan, Business Standard
