TRAI sets 12-minute cap per hour on TV ads

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday issued the Standards of Quality of Service (Duration of Advertisements in Television Channels) Regulations 2012. Among other conditions, the regulations limit the duration of ads on TV channels to 12 minutes per hour. Also, the minimum time gap between two consecutive advertisement breaks should not be less than 15 minutes.


The salient features of the regulations are: The duration of advertisements on TV channels to be limited to 12 minutes per clock hour. Any shortfall of advertisement duration in any clock hour not to be carried over.The advertisements during live broadcast of a sporting event to be aired only during the breaks in the sporting action.The minimum time gap between two consecutive advertisement breaks should not be less than 15 minutes; in case of movies, this time gap should be a minimum of 30 minutes.  However, this condition not to apply in case of live broadcast of a sporting event.The advertisements to be only full screen. Part-screen and dropdown advertisements not to be permitted.The audio level of the advertisements carried on TV channels not to be higher than the audio level of the programmes being broadcast on the channel. Details of the regulations are available on the TRAI website  www.trai.gov.in