The Department for Media, Culture and Sport has said it has “no plans” to make legislative changes to the amount of time per hour that adverts are shown on British TV.
A report in The Times said the DCMS is in talks with public service broadcasters including ITV and Channel 4 about the possibility of increasing the current limit on advertising per hour of programming.
Ofcom currently allows PSBs to broadcast an average of seven minutes of ads every hour, which increases to an average of eight minutes during primetime, up to a maximum of 12 minutes. Other commercial channels are allowed to broadcast nine minutes of ads per hour.
According to the report, the expansion is seen by the DCMS as a way to help commercial broadcasters in their ongoing battle against the streaming companies. Extending the amount of advertising time would help to increase their revenues.
However, in a statement the DCMS told TVBEurope: “We want to continue to deliver a world-class television broadcasting service in the UK.
“The government is consulting on a range of issues in the broadcasting market, including in relation to advertising. We already have strict limits in place on advertising and we have been clear that we have no plans to make legislative changes in this area.”
