Eircom's sponsorship of RTÉ's weather broke official rules

Media&Marketing: The growing shift away from conventional advertising to sponsorship is throwing up new problems for companies.

For the past few years, Eircom has been sponsoring the weather bulletins on RTÉ, presumably hoping that such an association would heighten awareness of its brand and lead to additional sales of its products.

According to a judgment this week from the Broadcasting Complaints Commission, such sponsorships should only narrowly focus on the brand itself and not on any particular benefit of a company's products.

A complainant told the Commission that Eircom's sponsorship - which referred to Eircom Broadband - was misleading viewers and represented subliminal advertising. The complainant said Eircom's broadband service was only available to 60 per cent of its customers and this should be mentioned during the sponsorship slot.

The Commission did not go along with this but it found fault with other parts. Sponsorships must be "distinct" from advertisements in that they "should not promote the attributes of a product or service".

This is where Eircom's weather forecast sponsorship fell down. The first line says: "Want a faster way to check up on the latest sports results? Now you can with Eircom broadband". The second line says: "Whatever sports you are into, with Eircom broadband you can get instant updates."

The Commission said these types of lines were clearly promoting "an attribute of a product", thereby encouraging purchase of that product. While this is clearly just a single case, it is one of RTÉ's most lucrative sponsorship arrangements.

The narrow focus of the commission's ruling - which, to be fair, is based on ministerial codes - may put off other companies from going down the sponsorship route. It would seem that any future sponsorships are likely to simply confine themselves to a brief mention of the brand and maybe a quick blast of music.

Meanwhile, Eircom, for wider reasons, is ending its association with the weather forecasts. The contract with RTÉ is believed to be worth €1 million a year.

Channel 6 impact

Channel 6 has been broadcasting for almost two weeks, and so far there is little sign the big players in the Irish TV market - RTÉ and TV3 - are losing out because of its arrival.

The station hopes to reach a modest 3 per cent market share among its target market of 15 to 34 year-olds. So far, it has proven difficult to reach this target, with the channel getting 1.1 per cent in the first week.

While its theme night programming has proven relatively popular with female viewers, the station has found it difficult to wrestle market share off RTÉ, mainly because Podge and Rodge is hugely popular with younger viewers.

According to the Dublin advertising agency, Vizeum, the main losers have not been RTÉ or TV3. "At first glance, using the Nielsen data available to agencies, Channel 6 looks to have taken share from mainstream channels like RTÉ and TV3, but it is the entertainment-based MTV and Paramount channels that have taken the biggest hit, losing up to 40 per cent share in the first four days of Channel 6 being on air compared with the same period the previous week before Channel 6 aired," said Audrey Clarke, from the agency.

MTV, which is owned by Viacom, looks to be particularly vulnerable as its position in the NTL analogue system has now been taken up by Channel 6.

Initiative, another agency, said "a share for the first week of 1.1 per cent is not to be frowned upon" and it pointed out that Channel 6 had beaten MTV, Nickelodeon, Sky Sports and Setanta Sports.

Vizeum said Channel 6's performance was reasonable considering the channel was not available on the Sky platform, which has approximately 400,000 subscribers.

Lads' mags covered

It will be interesting over the next couple of weeks to see whether Irish retailers follow the example of British chain Sainsbury's, which has decided to place "modesty covers" over lads' magazines.

The supermarket chain said customers had made complaints about magazines like Loaded, Maxim, FHM, Zoo and Nuts. The covers to be placed over the magazines will not hide their titles, just some of the more racy images.

The magazines will continue to be placed as high up on shelves as possible and at the back of the display racks. The modesty covers, which are attached to display shelving, will appear in all Sainsbury's stores by next month, said a statement.

The aim is to "ensure that no offence is caused to customers who may object to the images or the content on the covers of some magazines," it added. It follows feedback from customers who felt "uncomfortable" with the images, especially when shopping with children.

Ali sells image

For years people have regretted his waning physical powers, but now the world's greatest boxer, Muhammad Ali, has sold the rights to his name and image to the company that owns the Pop Idol franchise for $50 million.

The boxer has sold the rights to the New York firm CKX, which in return gets an 80 per cent stake in his licensing company.

The boxer and his fourth wife, Lonnie Ali, will retain control of the remaining 20 per cent. Ali (64), who suffers from Parkinson's disease, said the deal would "help guarantee that, for generations to come, people of all nations will understand my beliefs and my purpose". Because of his Muslim faith, CKX has agreed not to use his image in conjunction with gambling or alcohol.

CKX is making a habit of buying up the image and name rights of celebrities - two years ago it paid $100 million for the rights to the image of Elvis. The money in that case went to his daughter Lisa Marie Presley.

The deal allows CKX to sell on Ali's image and name to companies that can use it as a form of endorsement for their products or campaigns.

Emmet Oliver can be contacted at eoliver@irish-times.ie