The document discusses the TRAI's decision to cap commercial advertisements on TV channels at 10 minutes per hour from the previous 25-30 minutes per hour. This is expected to significantly reduce advertising revenue for channels, potentially causing losses of 500-700 crores for the media industry. Small and mid-sized channels will be particularly impacted as they rely heavily on advertising revenue and will face difficulties competing for ads with larger channels that can move excess advertising across multiple channels. The changes may benefit consumers with less interrupted viewing but will hurt small advertisers and create short-term issues for the television industry.

2.  In May, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India (TRAI) had said Commercial advertising
limits for T.V. channels should be capped at 10
minutes an hour. A 2 minute an hour cap was
allowed for ads promoting the channels or their
shows, putting the over all ad cap at 12 minutes
an hour.

3.  Almost 25 to 30 minutes
of advertisements per
hour

5.  12 minutes of advertisements.

6. Consumers
Ads
TV
Content

7.  Digitization of TV networks is in its 1st phase so the
subscription revenue is meager, ad revenue contributes to
75% of the channel’s revenue, because of this ad cap the
media and television industry is expected to suffer a loss of
500 to 700 crores.
 Only the big TV networks in the GEC segment are expected to
benefit, creating a negative impact on the news channels and
smaller channels. The big networks are expected to jack up
ad rates by at least 10-15%, since they have many channels
in different genres so they can move over the surplus
advertising to secondary channels.
 The channels will need to come up with more content for the
additional air-time and hence there will be a constant
pressure on the production team.

8.  There will be several impacts on the existing small and medium
broadcasters face extreme difficulty because they do not have
the clout of the big networks. Only the top one or two in every
genre appear to benefit. Unlike them, there is no question of
smaller broadcasters commanding a price for advertisements.
 It will be an extremely draconian step. It ignores the reality on
the ground. News channels don’t have any alternate source of
revenue. Markets are depressed and the carriage cost is still high
it might lead to the collapse of news channels.

10.  Slowdown in the economy has forced advertisers to cut
their advertising expenditure. The ad cap has caused a rise
in the rates and thus the smaller companies will not be
able to afford to advertise on TV.
 Since there will be limited ad space on TV, agencies would
need to create ads which will be more effective to grab the
mind-space.
 Bombarding on the consumer’s mind will stop and thus,
the limited number of ads will register better on the
consumer’s mind.

11.  The number of advertisements is going up. And the need
for commercials is also going up. Over time, when the
slots are limited, the rates will also go up.
 In value terms, experts say around R500-700 crore worth
of advertising revenue would need to be re-worked into
the 10-minute ad slots, as opposed to 15-20 minutes at
present.
 It will hurt the small advertiser who has been able to
afford TV advertising because of the low rates. But it is
also not good for the bigger advertisers who will have to
pay higher rates because of the reduced inventory.

12.  This Regulation will put adequate power in the hands of the
consumers.
 The consumers will get ‘Less-interrupted Viewing’.
 Better Content to hold on to.