Indian Broadcasting Industry is not able to digest well the latest TRAI regulations which puts an hourly cap of Advertisement of 12 min on any Television network. TRAI had first issued this regulation on May 14, 2012. Most of the Broadcasters are demanding to postpone this decision till 100 percent digitization is achieved.
Leading broadcasters yesterday met Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari in New Delhi to express their reservations on the recent TRAI regulation.
Emerging from the meeting, Tewari said his ministry suggested that the broadcasters take up their concerns with TRAI and work out a solution. Indian Broadcasting Federation president Manjit Singh described the meeting as good .
Manjit Singh says, “While IBF is not against the idea of 10+2 minutes of ad regulation, we want to link it with digitisation. Until digitisation is complete, the broadcasters are 90 per cent dependent on advertising revenues, as we don’t get a fair share of subscription revenues. After digitisation, we would be okay with ad-time regulation.â€
The broadcasting industry and TRAI have been in disagreement over the regulation notified by the latter on 22nd of this month. The regulation armed TRAI with the power to intervene if channels crossed the 12-minute limit.
On an average, Hindi TV news channels have an ad-time of 20-24 minutes an hour. Despite this, news broadcasters say their ad revenues are low (growth is about 10-per cent) and their profitability under attack. Trai’s step would jeopardise the business models of news channels.