Guwahati, Aug. 23 -- The Centre has removed the 12-minute-per-hour limit on television advertisements, with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting notifying the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules, 2026 in the Gazette on August 21.

Under the amendment, Rule 7, sub-rule (11) of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, has been omitted. The provision had restricted television channels from carrying more than 12 minutes of advertisements in an hour.

The advertisement limit was introduced in 2006, when India's television broadcasting landscape was considerably smaller. According to the Ministry, there were only 62 TV channels at the time, compared with more than 900 channels currently.

The Ministry said the television distr...