Which do I use, is or are?

There are. Is is for single use and are for plural. The exceptions are; you is always plural and if something with more than one is acting as a single unit (ie. an army, a workforce) then use is as it demonstrates that it is a unit.

Hi Dave,

I would say 'There is fifteen minutes . . . ' if I were thinking, as I usually do, of fifteen minutes as 'a standard period of time'.

Hi Clive. Are you counting 15 minutes as a single period of time time as in a quartre of a hour or did I miss the point? Would you consider 15 minutes of film time as a single unit? I don't but am just a native speaker rather than a teacher so wishing to learn rather than challenge. Please educate me.

Um...
Dave, now you got me curious.....I wondering which you would say:

$50 for half tank of gas is /are ridiculous.
8 hours is/are too long to drive.
7 days on a cruise ship is /are way too long for me.

$50 for half a tank of gas is ridiculous. - I count the price as a unit

8 hours and 7 days I think both are correct. - Depends if you are counting them as acting as a single unit which on face value your sentences are so I would use is. However in a paragraph the context might change.

I see your point.

Going back to the original sentence:

There is fifteen minutes available to run the media.

or

There are fifteen minutes available to run the media.

There is/are fifteen mins available - meaning that not necessarily all of them will be used doing the same thing. Because 15 minutes are available only 14 might be used for example. Therefore I personally don't

When you say you "count the unit as a price" for the gas sentence, the word "is" really corresponds to "Half-a-tank" so that's why you would use "is".

Anonymous There is fifteen minutes available to run the media.or There are fifteen minutes available to run the media.

There are fifteen minutes available to run the media.

AnonymousThere are fifteen minutes available to run the media.

Yes, but

Fifteen minutes is enough to ....

CJ

There are fifteen minutes