Despite protestations of innocence from broadcasters, the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) says most of Canada’s television broadcasters are habitually violating the CRTC’s 12-minutes-of-advertising-per-hour rule and it is giving serious consideration to filing formal complaints with the federal regulatory body.

Bob Reaume, ACA vice-president, media and research, says the association’s most recent study of television advertising clutter indicates an increase of four per cent on a minutes-per-hour basis and an 11% jump in messages-per-hour over summer 1998 numbers.

The ACA, Reaume says, expected its most recent study to show an increase in ad clutter because it was conducted in the Toronto area during the Ontario election campaign in May. The levels of clutter measured, however, were more than even the ACA expected.In May, 80% of all measured stations exceeded the 12-minute limit compared to the 1993 federal election campaign, when only 43% were found to be in violation of the rule.

‘One single-hour show in Toronto, on May 22, ran 27 minutes of commercials… remember, the regulation is a maximum allowed of 12 minutes per hour,’ Reaume says, adding that the problem is not limited to election campaign periods.

‘Someone from CTV has stated it [the network] would never hit the 15-minute mark, and the fact is, 80% of CTV’s programs are already above the 15-minute mark,’ he says.

Tom Curzon, vice-president of corporate communications for CTV, says the network’s program logs show that its level of commercial time does, in fact, comply with CRTC guidelines and that the ACA is being unco-operative by not allowing the network to examine its report.

‘We’ve had someone look at the logs over the election period and we are quite comfortable that we are in compliance with the CRTC regulations,’ says Curzon, who also denies the ACA’s claim that on-air ad clutter spirals out of control during election campaigns.

Curzon admits that the CRTC’s 12-minute limit is occasionally surpassed, but says that it is not a regular occurrence.

‘Occasionally,’ he says, ‘there will be a bump – a clerical error or whatever – and that happens periodically. But, this blanket charge is absolutely remarkable.’

Kevin Shea, president and COO of Global Television Network – Eastern, says Global takes its CRTC licences very seriously and wouldn’t knowingly break the 12-minute rule. He says that even with the increase in promotional minutes for Canadian content, in accordance with recent changes in CRTC regulations, Global has not received any viewer complaints about clutter.

He, too, expresses disappointment that the ACA appears to be taking a confrontational stance on the issue. ‘We’re all in the same business together,’ he says, ‘We’re trying to promote and help clients – which are their members – have more successful businesses. I think taking side swipes at each other just isn’t productive.’

Sunni Boot, president of Optimedia Canada, says she can see why advertisers are taking up the clutter cause because media buyers and media companies are also very troubled by it. She says she has viewed research that suggests that clutter is a contributing factor to viewer tune-out or immunity to advertising messages.

‘I think common sense tells us that if, in a commercial pause, I’ve got five or six messages, versus maybe two or three messages…the two or three will be more memorable,’ she says.

Reaume says the ACA’s broadcast committee is currently reviewing the results of the ad clutter study and is assessing how the association will proceed.