NEW DELHI: The ad cap scrap has been put to rest. Both news and general entertainment channels (GECs) have accepted that the amount of free commercial time that will be allowed per hour will be 12 minutes from 1 October.

With immediate effect, broadcasters will not exceed 30 minutes of advertising per hour.

From 1 July, news channels will reduce advertising to 20 minutes per hour while GECs will cut it down to 16 minutes.

This will be in force until 30 September, following which the 12-minute rule will be enforced from 1 October.

Meetings were held between broadcasters and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India officials headed by Principal Advisor N Parameswaran over the past two weeks, but the ice was broken over the last two days.

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation Board tasked K V L Narayan Rao (News Broadcasters Association president & NDTV executive vice-chairman), Puneet Goenka (Zee Entertainment CEO), K Madhavan (Asianet Managing Director) and M K Anand (Disney UTV Media managing director) with the assistance of IBF Secretary General Shailesh Shah to research, debate, consult and arrive at what will work.

Earlier in March, the regulator had issued a notification asking television channels to stick to the advertising limit as it was affecting ?Quality of Service."

When the law was invoked by the Authority in May 2012, it was disputed by television broadcasters which had also challenged the jurisdiction of Trai in this regard before the Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

After detailed consultations and understanding of the situation, the Committee reluctantly came to the conclusion that the above transition needs to be complied with.

While admitting that there were some channels like those in regional languages which ran advertising of more than 30 minutes per hour, Shah told indiantelevision.com today that the per hour ad time works out to just over 11 minutes if a full-day average is taken.

Earlier on 22 March, TRAI had passed a regulation mandating broadcasters to restrict the duration of advertisements on their channels to a maximum of 12 minutes in any given clock-hour as prescribed in the existing rules, alleging that most TV channels are in ?brazen breach? of the existing rules on advertising time.

In order to monitor and ensure compliance of these regulations, broadcasters were also mandated to report the duration of advertisements carried in their channels to the Trai on a quarterly basis in a prescribed proforma.

Trai issued the ?Standards of Quality of Service (Duration of Advertisements in Television Channels) (Amendment) Regulations 2013, and said this was being done as the regulations set out in the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994 were being violated.

Trai said it had studied the issue of duration of advertisements being carried in TV channels and the data obtained from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and from broadcasters before coming to its decision.

The duration of advertisements being carried on TV channels is closely related to the quality of viewing experience of the consumers which is akin to the quality of service being offered by the service providers to the consumers, and the regulation has been issued to ensure the quality of service and protect the interests of the consumers, says Trai.

The amended regulation clearly defines Trai?s power to intervene to protect the interests of the subscribers or for ensuring compliance of the provisions of these regulations. It says that through an order of 9 January 2004, the Central Government under Section 11(1)(d) of Trai Act entrusted some additional functions to Trai including the function to recommend the parameters for regulating maximum time for advertisements in pay channels as well as other channels. Trai says the advertisements carried on by the broadcaster in their programme are a quality of service issue as they interfere with the uninterrupted broadcast of a programme and intrusion of advertisements during the telecast of a programme adversely affects the viewing experience of the consumer.

The principal regulations were issued on 14 May last year but had met with severe criticism from the television channels and their representative bodies. The regulations were challenged by some of the broadcasters in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) and thereafter TRAI issued an amended Regulation on 27 August on which responses were called for and open house consultations also held.

Trai has also said that ?it is important to note that the provisions in these regulations do not attempt to disturb the time limit fixed by the government regarding duration of advertisement i.e. 12 minutes per hour. As discussed earlier, Trai is responsible to ensure that quality of service to consumer is not compromised and hence these regulations.?