Advertising curbs risk weakening broadcasters in a changed market

The recent Delhi High Court verdict that broadcasters must cap advertising at 12 minutes per hour, including two minutes of self-promotion, is based on the grounds that television (TV) channels must not maximise advertising revenue as a right since they are licensed users of spectrum — a scarce public resource. The argument against unlimited monetisation of public resources, while making a case for the common good, may be sound from a legal standpoint, but overlooking the changing dynamics of the broadcasting industry over time puts a question mark on the practicality of the judgment.  The latest verdict is unlikely to serve as a closure to a long-winding legal dispute running over a decade. Even as the court dismissed some 17 writ petitions filed by TV channels of various genres, the industry has already announced its decision to appeal at the Supreme Court. The fact that the court, in May this year, upheld the “12-minute per clock hour” advertisement cap —prescribed by the Cable Television Network Rules, 1994, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Regulations, 2012 (amended in 2013) — shows that the verdict may have glossed over the passage of time and the shift in consumer preference. 

At a time when the consumer has the choice to watch an advertisement or skip it in over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as Youtube, archaic rules dating back to 1994 appear to be a faulty reference point. In 1994, when the mobile-phone launch in India was still a year away, cable & satellite TV had started to make a mark against the monopoly of state-owned Doordarshan. Homes with cable & satellite TV were estimated at around 12 million and advertising revenue had crossed the ₹1,000 crore mark. Some 20 years later, in 2013, when the amended Trai regulation notified a similar 12-minute-an-hour cap on advertisement, cable & satellite TV homes had risen to 161 million. Of the ₹41,700 crore broadcasting revenue, ₹28,100 crore came from subscription and ₹13,600 crore from advertisements. 

As of December 2025, the number of homes with cable & satellite TV was down to 100 million, according to estimates. While pay TV broadcasters were getting 50-70 per cent of their revenue from advertising, free-to-air channels were entirely dependent on ads. The linear TV (traditional broadcasting) industry generated revenues of ₹62,000 crore, of which ₹26,300 crore came from advertising and ₹35,400 crore from subscriptions. Against the rapid rise of OTTs, connected TVs or smart TVs, and free ad-supported streaming television, a mandatory cap of 12 minutes an hour may act as a blow to the broadcasting industry.        

History shows that the advertising cap has not been implemented in any meaningful manner. After the broadcasting industry largely failed to comply with the advertising rules prescribed by the Cable TV Network Rules, 1994, Trai in 2013 notified the amended “quality of service” regulations for channels after consultation with stakeholders. Ever since, the issue has been under litigation. In principle, with consumers having a choice of parallel platforms, restricting broadcasters through a cap, which could affect their revenues and the quality of content over the medium term cannot be a right policy option. Broadcasters should have more freedom to run their business.