A report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has revealed that NDTV 24×7 has the highest number of peak-hour advertisements among English news channels in India, followed by Times Now, India Today and CNN-IBN.
According to the report, NDTV showed an average of 22.66 minutes of advertisements per hour during the period under survey. The study was conducted only on pay channels from Sep 28 to Dec 27 last year and measured the quantum of advertising from 7 PM to 10 PM.
NDTV 24×7 not only beat other English news channels, but also all other news channels in the country in showing the highest number of ads during peak time.
Times Now, the news channel from the Times of India group, was second among English channels at 17.75 minutes per hour, followed by India Today at 13.60 minutes and CNN-IBN at 13.30 minutes.
Among national Hindi news channels, the one with the highest number of ads was on Zee News, which carried 14.96 minutes of ads per hour, followed by TEZ from the Indian Today group. Aaj Tak carried 12.97 minutes of ads, among the lowest in India.
However, the figures for Hindi channels may not give the full picture as most Hindi news channels are free to air. The TRAI study did not include such channels.
The TRAI has suggested that pay channels should try to restrict advertising to 12 minutes per hour. The TRAI proposal is under litigation.