NEW DELHI: The Government has taken up with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) the opposition by television channels to the Advertisement Regulation who say they are ?facing difficult business environment due to low revenue accrual?.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told Parliament that the ministry has received some representations from broadcasters, especially the news channels.

The Minister said that even before the TRAI regulation of 22 March, the Advertising Code under Rule 7 of the Cable TV Networks Rules 1994 provided that ?no programme shall carry advertisements exceeding twelve minutes per hour, which may include up to ten minutes per hour of commercial advertising and up to two minutes per hour of the channel?s self-promotion.

Earlier this month on 10 April, TRAI issued the format in which broadcasters will have to provide information about ad duration on a quarterly basis.

Every television channel will be required to provide details of commercial ads, self promotional ads, and public service ads, where no revenue accrues to the broadcaster, broadcast on a clock hour basis for all 24 hours of the day.

According to TRAI, the said information will have to be reported on the first Saturday and Sunday and the last Wednesday and Thursday of each month of the quarter. For all other days of the quarter, the broadcasters will have to specify maximum duration of the advertisements in any clock hour for each day of the quarter reported upon.

Under Standards of Quality of Service (Duration of Advertisements in Television Channels) Regulations 2012, every broadcaster has to submit information about ad duration on their respective channels in a set format within fifteen days from the end of a quarter.

The TRAI had on 22 March notified the Standards of Quality of Service (Duration of Advertisement in Television Channels) after watering down the amended version of the ad regulation. The main regulation was issued on 14 May last year but had to be amended after it was challenged by broadcasters in the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Redressal Tribunal.

The amended ad regulation has done away with contentious clauses by keeping standardised ad duration at 12 minutes on clock hour basis for all channels as stated under the Advertising Code.

NEW DELHI: Even as it extended the deadline for comments on its consultation paper on cross media ownership to 22 April, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asserted that this will be last opportunity for stakeholders to offer their comments.

The paper among other issues has sought comments on devising ownership rules for vertical integration between broadcasting and distribution entities.

The paper had been issued on 15 February for reply by 15 March, which was then extended to 8 April. This final extension is in view of the ?complexity of the issue?. Cross-comments can be filed by 29 April.

The paper will also devise rules/restrictions in case of mergers and acquisitions in the media sector, and media ownership rules within and across media segments.

Methodology to measure ownership or control of an entity over a media outlet, identification of genres to be considered while framing media ownership rules, and prescribing norms for mandatory disclosures by media entities are some other issues.

Trai has also discussed in its Paper issues relating to identification of media segments wherein media ownership rules are to be prescribed, and identification of relevant markets for evaluating various parameters to be used for devising ownership rules and the methodology for measuring these parameters.

At the outset, Trai said the paper had been issued at the request of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry earlier last year following a report of the Administrative Staff College of India, in Hyderabad.

Trai said that it was felt that reasonable restrictions may need to be put in place on ownership in the media sector, to ensure media pluralism and to counter the ills of monopolies. It pointed out that such restrictions do exist in many international markets.