So you may be wondering: where did they get the 12-minute limitation on television advertising? Since when is the EU qualified to regulate how our television networks function here in Spain, much less impose some sort of sanction for disobeying their arbitrary limit?

But the debate runs deeper than one might think. Television advertising is a real business in today’s business world. Company budgets in advertising and marketing new products and services easily amounts to millions and millions of euros for 30 to 60-second television spots in prime time. All of this means, that family and smaller retail businesses find themselves unable to compete with larger corporations for sufficient air time.

On that score, the EU may have a very valid case which deserves a second look. However, one can not help but question the authority of the European Commission when it comes to deciding or limiting the amount of television advertising. After all, if it were not for advertising, television networks would never be capable of financing the cost of 24-hour programming. Is the EU commission disposed to subsidize the increasing cost of programming for Spanish television networks?

As a consumer, television adverts may be considered irritating, superfluous and downright offensive. One only needs to count the number of television adverts that appear every night on television between the hour of 8:40 PM and 9:30 PM to get an idea of where we are coming from. The other day, I counted an astounding 35 adverts before the presentation of a film on one of Spanish television’s most popular channels. So where/how/when should we draw the line?

But in defense of large corporations that spend lots of money on expensive and intricate marketing campaigns, advertising not only pays for jobs at television networks, but also finances and promotes products and services that also represent an important number of active employees.

On the other hand, there is an issue of fair competition, which raises the issue of eliminating entry barriers and establishes fair play among small-, medium- and large-sized corporations. However, this law of fair competition can not penalize corporations for making more money, for generating more profits, than their smaller, local competitors. Again, we are back to square one.

The dilemma reminds us of so many other quotas / demands or limits established by the European Commission, such as trade and production quotas, growth rates, interest rate levels, fishing rights, agricultural subsidies, etc. The list goes on and on. Maybe some day we will wake up and realise that maybe EU regulators have not received our approval, nor should they enjoy the authority that we have not endowed upon them to limit our productive capacity to do business, to generate employment, in a word, to grow at our own rhythm, without the stressful anxiety imposed by a money-driven machine such as the EU Commission. How many more millions are they going to scrape from our multinationals?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robdeman/166341212/in/pool-europatriot