unicornnews: Product placement ban to stay

Bad news for advocates of product placement. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has said the government will not support a change in the TV advertising rules to allow brands to pay for their products to appear in British television programmes.

Some in the television sector had been lobbying for a change in the rules governing the periphery promotion of products on popular TV shows like soap operas and sitcoms, seeing product placement as a possible new revenue stream to help fill the gap left by declining advertising sales. Product placement is also advocated by some in the marketing sector who recognise that in the multi-channel, Sky Plus, telly-on-demand age viewers are increasingly channel hopping or skipping through the adverts.

But after a three month consultation, Burnham says that he does not believe the economic benefits of product placement are sufficient to justify blurring the line between editorial-based programming and advertising. Protecting the clarity of that distinction is, of course, something that media regulator OfCom takes very seriously, keen to ensure that TV viewers and radio listeners won’t confuse paid-for commercial messages for editorial.

Burnham says: “My priority has always been to make sure we maintain levels of trust between audiences and broadcasters, and protect the standards of broadcasting for which Britain is known worldwide. I have listened carefully to the arguments on both sides around product placement, and concluded that it should not be permitted in programmes made for this country. There is a lack of evidence of economic benefits, along with very serious concerns about blurring the boundaries between advertising and editorial. Britain is known around the world for the high quality of its broadcasting output. We need to continue to preserve editorial integrity as technology advances”.

Recognising that the push by some for product placement comes as commercial TV companies struggle to make ends meet through traditional advertising and sponsorship sales, he added: “I am well aware that a number of commercial broadcasters are facing difficult economic times and I will continue to work with the industry to explore ways we can support them, but my preference is to consider all other avenues before allowing product placement”.

As with the existing system, British broadcasters will be able to air movies and imported TV programmes where there has been product placement, ie where a brand has paid the original film studio or programme maker to use their products on screen. The government will also allow product placement on programmes distributed via on-demand and web-TV platforms, mainly because a recent European directive says they have too.

Posted Wednesday March 11 2009 by Chris Cooke

Related categories: Advertising Broadcast Media