Commercial Networks Want More Ads


Hands up if what you’ve been holding out for from Australia’s commercial free to air networks was more commercials.

The SMH reports that the CEOs of Seven and Nine are lobbying to have the limit raised on commercial advertising during prime time to twenty minutes per hour.

Currently they’re allowed 13 minutes per hour in prime time, but that doesn’t include in-house advertising including direct channel promotions or advertising for other programs, which is why ad breaks in prime time can often seem to go on for much longer than you’d think.

It’s not all harmony on the advertising front, however. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has indicated that he wouldn’t move to shift the advertising goal posts unless there’s accord from all the networks that this is what they want, and Channel Ten’s indicated that it would oppose such a move citing a fear of consumer backlash as well as the fact that it wouldn’t attract the same kind of ad rates as Seven or Nine due to ratings differences.

[SMH]