Broadcasters of India-England series violated code, claims body

New Delhi, Sep 4 (UNI) Broadcasters violated the advertising code for earning extra money by beaming commercials in excess of the stipulated time during the recent India-England series, a consumer rights body has charged.

The Society of Catalysts, in a letter to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, has complained that the TV channels telecasting the series live had shown 35,190 seconds and 19,159 seconds of extra commercials during the test series and the ongoing one-day series. (excluding the last two ODIs) Society Treasurer and former Delhi Chief Secretary Omesh Saigal said the Channels have clearly flouted the permissible limit of commercials laid down under rule 7(11) of The Cable Television Network Rules 1994.

The rule provides: No programme shall carry advertisements exceeding 12 minutes per hour, which may include up to 10 minutes per hour of commercial advertisements, and up to 2 minutes per hour of a channel's self-promotional programmes.

It also urged the Ministry to recover the ''illegal'' money to the tune of Rs 50 crore earned by the broadcasters and take immediate action to stop further violation of the law.

The society has threatened that it will move the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission, if the Ministry failed to take corrective action.

UNI