The IPA says it is "disappointed but not surprised" by the House of Lords' recommendation that TV advertising should be reduced.

A Lords Select Committee today recommended that advertising on all TV channels be cut to an average of seven minutes an hour.

But the advertising trade body has warned that reducing terrestrial advertising "would inevitably force up prices" and disadvantage satellite operators.

On the issue of Contract Rights Renewal, which limits how much ITV can charge for advertising slots, the IPA said it was "unsurprised" by the Committee's recommendations to abolish CRR in return for guarantees that ITV would increase its investment in quality, UK-originated programming.

Geoffrey Russell, IPA director for media affairs, said: "We had hardened ourselves to the Committee proposing to overturn the Competition Commission’s conclusions and go against the majority of informed opinion in the market - and while its report states 'that some form of regulation is necessary in order to curb ITV's ability to exploit its competitive advantage to the detriment of the industry and the television watching public' – we doubt the proposed re-introduction of the Airtime Sales Rules will achieve this.

"Despite attempts to find an alternative, CRR has been shown to be the only remedy capable of delivering satisfactory levels of protection for advertisers against the threat of ITV unfairly exploiting its position of strength."

Russell added that the Lords' proposal for “a short focused review of the trading system for television advertising” was unrealistic. 

He said: “As the Committee itself has indicated, this is a complicated market place, which has evolved over time. It is understood by its operators, is efficient for the parties involved - and above all, it works. A superficial review would risk achieving little and be in the interests of no-one.”