12 minutes of ads in one-hour program ridiculous: HC

The Delhi High Court today termed as "ridiculous" the permitted 12 minutes of advertisements during a one-hour television program, saying ads are replacing the content shown on channels.
"Twelve minutes of advertisement in 60 minutes of a program is ridiculous. The content becomes an advertisement and the ads become the content. What they (TRAI) are doing is reasonable. Take an opinion poll. Everyone will say no to advertisements," a bench of Acting Chief Justice B D Ahmed and Justice S Mridul said.
The bench also observed that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) cap on advertisements is "a reasonable exercise".

The high court made the observations while hearing the plea of Maa Television Network Limited which is challenging the cap on advertisements set by TRAI.
The court, however, provided interim relief to the channel by directing the regulator not to take any coercive action against it.
"Till disposal of writ petition no coercive measures be taken against the petitioner," the court said and listed the matter on March 13 for further hearing.

Maa TV has challenged the limit set by TRAI saying it depends on ads to survive and that while the regulator has the authority to decide the quality and content of commercials it cannot decide the duration of the same.

Earlier, the high court had passed a similar order on a plea by the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) challenging TRAI's regulation.
TRAI notified the advertising limits in May 2012.
Claiming that Telecom Regulatory Authority Act empowers the regulatory authority to make regulations and rules to carry out its purpose in the telecom and broadcast sector, TRAI had come out with Quality of Service regulation which mandates the channels to show not more than 12 minutes of advertisements and promotional content per hour.