nder instructions from the Delhi High Court, the Information and Broadcasting (I&B;) Ministry has to introduce CAS (conditional access system) by December 31 this year in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. That was good news for the cable operators, especially the bigger ones, who had already invested money in the STBs (set top boxes) during an earlier failed attempt at implementation. Now the I&B; ministry has issued a new notification for the broadcasters limiting advertising on TV channels to 12 minutes per hour. The broadcasters can carry commercial ads of 10 minutes duration and up to two minutes of a channel's self promotional programmes (12 minutes in total).

The rationale established by the ministry is that with the implementation of CAS, the broadcasters will be assured of a continuous revenue stream from subscribers. Hence the ads on television should be limited. ... more