Commission aims to relax TV advert rules

The European Commission wants to relax rules that limit the amount of adverts shown on television while facilitating product placement in programmes.

The proposed directive would update rules set in 1989 to remove some of the time limits placed on the frequency of television adverts. Under current rules, broadcasters must not show more than three hours of adverts a day or have more than one break every 20 minutes.

Under the proposed change, broadcasters will have no three-hour upper limit, but will have to ensure there are not more than 12 minutes advertising per hour.

The proposed directive would also extend limited regulation to some audiovisual media content provided online.

However, the commission's proposal to update the "TV without frontiers directive" ignores lobbying by Ireland and several other member states for the establishment of new rules to enable states to regulate broadcasters based in other EU states.

The former minister for communications, Dermot Ahern, lobbied the commission in 2003 and 2004 to insert new rules into the directive to enable Ireland to make foreign-based broadcasters comply with domestic regulations.

Ireland will attempt to amend the directive as it passes through the Council of Ministers and parliament, which could take several years before it becomes law.

The commission said yesterday the proposal to allow product placement in TV programmes would give broadcasters a new revenue stream.

Product placement is only outlawed if it takes the form of "surreptitious advertising" by a broadcaster. But films and independent programmes already feature product placement. Under the proposed directive, programme makers would have to alert audiences about product placement at the start of each show.