TDSAT to resume hearing on mandatory adcap on Tuesday

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) will resume hearing on Tuesday, a ruling by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), to cap advertisements aired by broadcasters at 12 minutes per hour.

This follows a one and half hour hearing on Monday when Abhishek Manu Singhvi, lawyer for the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) presented his clients version in front of a bench that included TDSAT chairman Aftab Alam and member Kuldip Singh.

NBA’s contention was that the Trai does not have enough power to regulate the content and is only restricted to licensing. In addition, NBA also contended that advertisements were part of content and could not be regulated by Trai.

The judge in response pointed out that the license for broadcasting itself states that one will abide by the rules of the license which includes adherence to the programming and advertising codes.

News Broadcasters association and a few general entertainment channels had challenged an order by Trai to implement a rule allowing only 12 minutes of advertisements per hour after the government embarked on a nationwide digitization process.

According to media planners, only 15% of the 380 broadcasters in India, who control 780 channels between them, currently implement the 12 minute rule and the remaining are waiting for the TDSAT verdict on the same.

Media Planners say that the country’s top general entertainment broadcasters including Network 18, Multi Screen Media (MSM) and Zee Network are currently following a 14 minute advertisement rule instead of the 12 minute rule.

Meanwhile, news broadcasters are yet to bring down their advertisements to less than 20 minute and are waiting for TDSAT to give its verdict regarding the same according to the planners.

“General broadcasters are awaiting the TDSAT hearing on the matter before they start bringing down their advertisement time. But, with the festival season coming to an end, the broadcasters are expected to eventually bring down their advertisement time”, a Mumbai based media planner had earlier told Business Standard.

The I&B ministry had also earlier supported the broadcasters and said that Trai should reconsider the implementation of the policy and provide a breather for the companies until the domestic economy is back on the growth trajectory.