Broadcasters can breathe a sigh of relief because there is no 12-minute ad cap that is to be implemented yet. The Delhi High Court today adjourned the hearing of the 10+2 ad cap case to November 19. The case has been pending for seven years now and goes back to March 2013. Some of the parties associated with the case against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) are News Broadcasters Association (NBA), B4U, 9X Media, TV Vision, Sun TV Network, E24, and Kalaignar TV.
The case has been pending for seven years now and goes back to March 2013, when TRAI reinstated the Quality of Service norms (QoS) as per the Cable Television Network Regulation, 1995 for the broadcasters. As per the norm, which was initially published as consultation paper in August 2012, every broadcaster can run only 12 minutes of advertisements in an hour. This may include 10 minutes of commercial advertising and 2 minutes of self-promotion. TRAI had even initiated criminal proceedings against CEOs of channels who did not follow the mandated ad cap.
The move was vehemently opposed by a section of the community. NBA filed a petition against TRAI in TDSAT. Some broadcasters also individually opposed the move. TDSAT had then stayed the ad cap and had agreed to hear the case in November. But later TDSAT dismissed the case filed by NBA and other broadcasters after a Supreme Court judgment declared that TDSAT has no power to interfere in TRAI’s recommendations. This is when the petitioners directly moved the high court.
