THE Broadcasting Commission yesterday instructed local cable television providers to immediately cease the transmission of local advertising on their cable channels.

“Extreme care must be exercised when broadcasting community notices, to ensure that their purpose is not consistent with the definition of an advertisement.

“This directive also extends to material transmitted on channels carrying local programming and retransmitted overseas channels; whether in the form of “crawlers”, i.e., character-generated text messages, or notice board announcements with accompanying video/audio dramatisation,” the Broadcasting Commission told the cable TV operators yesterday.

The government had indicated in February this year that it was going ahead with plans to allow advertising on cable television, but said there was still room for dialogue on the regulatory framework.

Burchell Whiteman, the information minister, said then that the government wanted to encourage the development of local programming of a high standard, both in quality and content, and felt that allowing advertising on cable channels will provide the funding.

However, the Broadcasting Commission said yesterday that until the current legislation was amended to allow local advertisements on other local subscriber television channels, licensees must obey the existing legislation or the relevant sanctions will be applied.

The Media Association of Jamaica (MAJ) earlier this year criticised the decision to allow advertising on cable television. It said current regulations stated clearly that cable television was not allowed to advertise, since they already have income streams from subscription, data transmission and Internet services.