Hundreds of Indian TV channels breach ad-rules
February 23, 2017
By Chris Forrester
India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) has reported that hundreds of channels are transmitting advertising breaks that exceed TRAI’s rules.
TRAI has various limits in place for ad-breaks and found that 104 non-news channels were airing more than 12 minutes per hour. Another 23 news channels also exceeded these limits.
Almost all of India’s Hindi-language channels are breaching the 12-minute in any hour limits, with some channels almost transmitting 16 minutes per hour. TRAI says that the average is a worrying 15.16 minutes per hour.
But these breaches are miniscule when compared with some of India’s film channels with B4U’s average duration during peak hours carrying a massive 25.79 minutes per hour.
Even ‘western’ channels are not immune with Discovery Channel found to be carrying 13.87 minutes per hour, and TLC 13.77 minutes. TRAI’s ‘Infotainment & Lifestyle’ genre, where ten channels including Discovery, Nat-Geo, Animal Planet and Discovery Science sit, were all found to be in breach.