Indian TV commercials to be capped at 12 minutes

Similar to the UK, Indian television commercial breaks will be capped at 12-minutes after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and a five-member committee representing the broadcast fraternity reached an agreement.

The committee included NDTV’s KVL Narayan Rao, president, News Broadcasters Association, and Shailesh Shah, secretary, Indian Broadcast Foundation (IBF).

Shah said, “Broadcasters need to restrict advertising to less than 30 minutes to the clock hour with immediate effect. From July 1, news channels need to restrict advertising to less than 20 minute and other channels to 16 minutes per hour respectively. And from October 1, it will be 12 minute cap on all channels.”

He added that all members of the IBF would abide by the decision.

The committee was in talks with TRAI over the last two weeks. And the final decision was arrived upon over the last couple of days, according to Shah.

In the UK, media regulator, Ofcom follows a similar system with all TV channels not exceeding 12 minutes of commercial airtime during a clock hour.