Ten sports in trouble over pop-up ads

Those irritating ads popping up out of the pitch during the recent India-South Africa cricket series have brought the ire of the I&B ministry on sports channel Ten Cricket.

Those irritating ads popping up out of the pitch during the recent India-South Africa cricket series have brought the ire of the I&B ministry on sports channel Ten Cricket. Barely a week after the series ended, the ministry has issued notice to sports channel Ten Cricket for violation of the advertisement code. The channel had aired pop-up ads during telecast of cricket matches, which had sports buffs across the country up in arms.

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A senior official said Ten Cricket had been issued a show cause notice to explain its violation of Rule 7 (10) of the Advertising Code. In simple words, the code requires advertisements to be shown only during breaks and not during telecast of a programme.

The ministry had received about a thousand complaints from angry sports fans who were "upset about advertisements popping out right in the middle of the pitch while the match was on," the official said.

Rule 7 (10) of the Advertising Code says "all advertisements should be clearly distinguishable from the programme and should not in any manner interfere with the programme viz, use of lower part of screen to carry captions, static or moving alongside the programme."