Delhi:
After howls of protest over frequent ad breaks during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, the public broadcaster Doordarshan will Thursday broadcast the entire closing ceremony without showing any advertisements.
"The government has told us not to show advertisements during the closing ceremony," Doordarshan director general Aruna Sharma told IANS.
She said the broadcaster's coverage for the ceremony will begin at 4.30 pm, when it will talk about the medals tally and the highlights of the 10-day mega-sporting event.
Thereafter, the channel will move to the one hour pre-ceremony events at the Jawaharalal Nehru Stadium at 6 p.m. The closing ceremony will start at 7 pm for a two-hour extravaganza marked by laser shows and fireworks.
"We will only be showing the advertisements in the slot between 4.30 pm and 7 pm," she said, adding some advertisement may also be slotted after the event.
It would mean that the telecast from the stadium will be "live" instead of "deferred live" as it was done during the opening ceremony.