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Journalism of Courage
TRAI must be told regulation of advertising is better left to producers and consumers of media.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI is being unreasonably insistent on enforcing a cap of 12 minutes per hour on TV advertising,an ill-conceived policy. The market is perfectly capable of negotiating the proportion of advertising to programming. An unacceptably high rate would discourage viewers and the resulting dip in revenue and influence would serve as an automatic disincentive. Advertising,which partly or wholly pays for programming,may be seen as a cost levied on the viewers time and attention. Limiting advertising is not very far removed from state-controlled product pricing,unacceptable in a democracy committed to liberalisation.
The regulation of advertising is best left to producers and consumers of media,along with ad professionals. It is a complicated category and a heavy-handed volume cap may not improve viewer experience at all. In fact,it could make it much worse by forcing channels to reduce programming spends.
