In September 2012 the Communications Authority issued a consultation paper to invite views from the public on the proposed amendments to the Codes of Practice governing television and radio programmes and advertising. The results of the consultation were published last week and a summary of the responses can be found here.
Overview of responses
The majority of the responses received supported the exemption of placement of commercial references within programmes to be extended to programmes on channels that are acquired for direct re-transmission on Domestic Free TV. Responses also showed there is support for additional conditions to be applied to Domestic Free TV operators to enjoy the exemption.
There is support for Domestic Free TV, Domestic Pay TV and Other Licensable TV to be exempted from the prohibition of indirect advertising in programmes.
The majority of responses seemed to favour the super-imposition of the caption “Advertisement” or “Advertising Magazine” on the screen in a clearly legible manner for the entire duration for advertisements adopting a programme style.
There is also support for viewing promotions of advertisement by the licensees on channels as advertisements and counting them towards the advertising time limits set out by the relevant legislation.