Limits to advertising time

There are limits on the amount of time most broadcasters can air commercials.

They are:

TV stations: 15 minutes of advertising per hour; as of September 1, 2009, there will no longer be time limits
Specialty services: 12 minutes per hour
Pay services (pay television, pay-per-view and video-on-demand): don’t carry advertising
Commercial AM and FM radio stations: no limits
CBC radio networks: prohibited from carrying advertising except for programs that are available to networks only on a sponsored basis

These time limits don’t include: the promotion of Canadian programs, public service announcements, political ads, product placements within a TV program and virtual ads.

Source: CRTC - Broadcast advertising basics: revenue, limits, and content (http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/b300.htm)

So previously private broadcasters were restricted to 15 minutes per hour plus the promotion of Canadian programs, public service announcements, political ads, product placements within a TV program and virtual ads.

Now no limits.

So now what? 1hr eppisodes will now be 20-30 minutes and 30 minute eppisodes will be 10-12 minutes?
Be nice if it went the other way and studios made shows that went 45-50 minutes for an hour and 20-25 for 30 minute eppisodes. There is no limit right that means there can also be less :rolleyes:

I imagine there will be a lot of shows missing time at either end of the commercials. Fade out early to start a commmercial, fade in late to finish a commercial. We the viewers will end up missing dialog. Damned CRTC

...takes another big pay check from the the MegaCorps like Bell/CTV.

And these old farts wonder why people download TV/Movies so much.

1. Because there is crap-nothing on
2. The crap-nothing that IS on is loaded with stupid commercials that have never once made me want to buy anything.

Imagine if a broadcaster decided to go in the opposite direction and reduce their per-hour advertising minutes!

Okay. Stop imagining. It'll never happen. :)

If a US show is cut down to allow more Canadian ad time, then the content is not the same. So, does this effect simsub? Would it force Canadian viewers near the border to go to OTA?

What if the reverse happens. A 1hr US show now runs 1h15 on a Canadian station? This would effect simsub as well?

I think what will happen is Canadian shows produced for the Canadian networks would be most effected. That plus movie packages.

Maybe they can run a 10min infomercial in the middle of "Lost". Ahhh, that Magic Bullet infomercial piece. As entertaining as top 10 shows. :p

I imagine we won't see much change until a year or so away. Most shows for the fall are already done. Maybe next year they will start making 30min shows less than the current 22min. Now I can see why having a PVR would be nice.

It will make no difference. Stations in the States already have no limits, yet they are able to self-regulate with common sense (too many commercials and viewers will change channels).

The previous ad limit didn't mean shorter commercial breaks, as the shows they brought in from the States were already shorter than what the Canadian limits would have allowed. It just meant that the networks had to fill up time with promos "Canada's Watching... Global's Got it, etc." instead of ads.

Canadian networks won't start editing U.S. shows to let them run more commercials as they would lose their right to simsub if 5% or more of the show is altered.

I don't expect much change, at least in primetime.
They still have to compete with each other, and they can not simsub over American broadcasting without broadcasting identical content.

Yay! Now the commercial breaks won't be synchronized and I can surf the other channels.

Great! Now we can see the same Tim Horton's or Canadian Tire commercial played 3 times during a set of commercial breaks instead of twice.

Hopefully this means CTV/Global will now need less money out of my pocket or better yet no money, when it comes to the upcoming fee for carriage negotiations.

Note that there is a movement afoot in the USA to restrict "copying" including onto PVRs ( see Ars technica article today) for movies... I cannot but think that this will be followed here and for other programming ( threads here about misuse of the "do not copy" flag).

Then the only thing left will be downloading. As the big bdus also own most of the highspeed bandwidth in the country maybe we'll be back to dialup AND 30 minutes of ads on each hour of TV.

I am glad that I have a DVR. :D.

I just have to highlight the skip button on the remote.

So how does that hulu proxy work again? ;)

Just because they can go more than 15 minutes per hour doesn't mean they will.

I mean in 2006 when the CRTC upped the cap from 12 minutes to 15 minutes per hour, did the broadcasters go to 15 minutes?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, nevermind ;)

More wisdom from the CRTC. Just give viewers more reasons to find their programming elsewhere. Brilliant deductions as always.

just watch. Global will now ask to start up "The Commercial Network", filled with nothing but infomercials, paid-programming, and commercial advertisements to help boost their profits... wait, that's already been done in the form of "ION Television" in the United States. oh well.

I predict that you will see less PSAs and less network promos...they still have to stay within the 22 min feed per half hour from the US
Cdn programmiong on the other hand will be bludgeoned with commercials, and then there will be an inquiry why Cdns aren't watching Cdn productions, and then they will create another charge to promote Cdn programs.

"We now interupt these commercials to bring you some content".